The Genesis Secret

Elbowing into the realm of Clive Cussler and Indiana Jones, Knox posits that a race of barbaric hominids interbred with humans many millennia ago and then disappeared. But their genetic imprint remains and is particularly found in the Kurdish region of southwestern Turkey, where man's oldest-known site of temple-based ritualistic sacrifice, Gobekli Tepe, is being excavated. (The latter is true.) The book is peppered with scenes of grisly slaughter involving genetic freaks with whom our heroes come into conflict. Narrator Gideon Emery's grasp of story and storytelling is magnificent; his cultured British intonations are mesmerizing throughout his performance. D.R.W. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

February 9, 2009
Knox's well-paced debut offers some new wrinkles on the theme of the archeological discovery that will change the course of human history. British reporter Rob Luttrell, who barely survived a suicide bomber's attack in Iraq, is hoping to take things easy, but his new assignment, to cover a dig in Turkish Kurdistan, proves anything but routine. German archeologist Franz Breitner has found evidence of buildings at the site known as Gobekli Tepe that appear to be 10,000 to 11,000 years old, 5,000 years earlier than any similar structure. The excavation has aroused the ire of the locals, who place an ancient Aramaic curse on those working there. It may be no accident when Breitner is impaled on a pole. Luttrell teams with an attractive biological anthropologist, Christine Meyer, to solve the mystery of the site, which may be where the Garden of Eden was located. Readers will hope to see more such offbeat thrillers from Knox, the pseudonym of London journalist Sean Thomas.