The Lightning Stones
A Novel
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- USD 5.99
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- USD 5.99
Publisher Description
What was Amelia Earhart carrying on her final flight? The adventure begins two thousand feet beneath the surface of the Earth.
Philip Mercer, a preeminent geologist with a taste for international intrigue and danger, rides an elevator two thousand feet into the earth at the Leister Deep Mine in Minnesota. Mercer is there to visit his old friend and mentor, Abraham Jacobs, who is leading a research team to the deepest section of the mine for a groundbreaking study on climate change. But as Mercer approaches, he is stunned to hear automatic gunfire in the massive underground chambers. By the time he finds his way to them, Abe Jacobs and the entire research team have been brutally attacked—and Mercer is left seeking not only answers but revenge.
Mercer immediately retraces Jacobs’s tracks, searching for clues to the secret project on which the distinguished scientist was working. Staying one step ahead of a highly trained team of assassins, Mercer follows a trail that leads from a harrowing close call in the Midwest to a nail-biting showdown in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan to a remote island in the middle of the Pacific. At stake is an extraordinary scientific discovery that could irrevocably alter the planet, centered on a cache of rare crystals called lightning stones—rumored to have been aboard Amelia Earhart’s plane when it vanished on July 2, 1937.
With his trademark combination of intellectual swagger, riveting action, and cutting-edge science, internationally bestselling author Jack Du Brul has crafted a superbly entertaining novel that will thrill his fans.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A prologue set in 1937 in bestseller Du Brul's fast-paced eighth Philip Mercer thriller (after 2006's Havoc) offers a new explanation for the disappearance of aviatrix Amelia Earhart some rock samples she was asked to transport emitted electromagnetic forces that skewed her navigator's readings. In the present, Mercer, a geological consultant, has come to Minnesota's Leister Deep Mine to teach mine rescue techniques. In another part of the mine, gunmen slaughter a team of scientists headed by Mercer's role model and surrogate father, retired professor Abraham Jacobs who are studying climate change and cosmic rays. Vowing revenge, Mercer dedicates himself to tracking down the killers and their paymaster. There are some nice touches (e.g., a villain takes advantage of cap-and-trade limits on carbon emissions to make millions), but not every reader will be able to relate to an action hero who takes time during a gun battle to notice a woman's "jeans stretched tight across her backside."
