The Doomsday Key

April 27, 2009
Bestseller Rollins's labyrinthine sixth Sigma Force thriller (after The Last Oracle
) offers plenty of intriguing science and history lessons. Sigma Force director Painter Crowe gathers the usual crew—Cmdr. Grayson Pierce; Pierce's best friend, Monk Kokkalis; lumbering Joe Kowalski—to discover why an experimental agriculture site in Africa has been attacked and razed, killing everyone, including a U.S. senator's son. “The future of mankind” may depend, they learn, on the “Doomsday key,” a strange substance brought to England long ago by ancient Egyptians that holds the promise of a new and powerful medicine. A few of the book's many highlights include genetic manipulation, traitorous beautiful women, illuminated manuscripts, saints, prophecies, curses and miracles. Rollins deftly juggles all this and more as the Sigma team races from the depths of the Vatican to the outer reaches of Norway toward an explosive confrontation with the shadowy forces of evil known as the Guild.

August 31, 2009
Rollins takes fans on a frenetic roller-coaster ride through the streets of Rome, across England and into Norway. The Sigma Force is in a race to find a link between a nearly 1,000-year-old mystery and a modern conspiracy that could cause the starvation of billions of humans. Comdr. Gray Pierce leads a team that includes his former lover and his current enemy, getting them to work together to save each other's lives long enough to save the world. Peter Jay Fernandez serves up an entertaining gravelly Scottish brogue and a plausible Norwegian accent and gives every character his or her own distinctive voice, allowing easy identification by using inflection and cadence. He keeps listeners involved through lengthy descriptive passages, convoluted scientific explanations and historical fact and speculation, and does well at raising the tension as the narrative escalates into explosive, action-packed scenes. A Morrow hardcover (Reviews, Apr. 27).

Rollins's latest Sigma Force thriller combines science, history, and religion to save the world from an evil group that wants to use genetically mutated food to control the food supply. Painter Crowe and his crew must solve three murders on three continents, which are connected by a pagan cross having been burned into each victim. With so many twists and a roller-coaster plot that moves at a breakneck pace, THE DOOMSDAY KEY benefits greatly from Peter Jay Fernandez's versatile performance. Whether the characters are investigating a murder at the Vatican, involved in a motorcycle shoot-out, or carrying out some other high-energy action, Fernandez's breathless style complements the book's pace and accentuates Rollins's imaginative story. D.J.S. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

Starred review from June 1, 2009
Rollins's ("The Last Oracle") prose explodes off the page in a twisty and compelling thriller that explores the issues of human overpopulation and genetically modified food. The Sigma Force must unravel the mysterious deaths of a geneticist, a senator's son working for the Red Cross in Africa, and someone with close ties to the Vatican. Gray Pierce and his team follow the clues starting from Rome, while Sigma leader Painter Crowe takes his group to meet with the head of a corporation that appears to be genetically modifying food. VERDICT Swashbuckling adventure, elite team effort, and religious symbology all add up to another gripping and terrifying read. Rollins somehow juggles all of these elements and incorporates them into an amazing and brilliant technothriller that might be his best to date. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 3/15/09.]Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L.

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.