Nemesis

July 10, 2006
Napier follows up his Da Vinci Code
–esque Splintered Icon
with a novel that mines Cold War Communist hysteria, of-the-moment natural disaster anxiety and, yes, centuries-old-secret-code mania for a winning thriller. In the near future, British physicist Dr. Oliver Webb is recruited for a top secret assignment. A reconstituted Soviet Union has concocted a brazen offensive against the free world, redirecting an asteroid, code name Nemesis, on a collision course with the United States. Webb and his colleagues have five days to locate Nemesis and conceive a plan to stop it before the United States will be forced into a preemptive nuclear strike against the Russians. As pressure to find the celestial needle in a haystack mounts, Webb becomes convinced that the secret to locating the asteroid lies in a manuscript written by a little-known Italian astronomer more than 400 years ago—a manuscript already procured by a murderous adversary. Meticulously researched—especially sobering are descriptions of the destruction an asteroid strike would wreak on humanity—Napier has delivered a thought-provoking and speculative novel, with plenty of twists to keep the pages turning. Fans of Michael Crichton will find a kindred spirit in Napier.