"Black Rain" is a pretty straight forward and well written thriller. On a refreshing note, the mission is pretty much a failure but the journey there is interesting and quite original.
The characters are well thought out and complete. There are some unusual aspects incorporating the early Myan culture and artifacts as well as a bit of time travel. And it is all done without forays into string theory or other heady scientific mumbo jumbo.
This is a good engrossing read and I look forward to Graham Brown's third book. ( read the second one first)
The characters are well thought out and complete. There are some unusual aspects incorporating the early Myan culture and artifacts as well as a bit of time travel. And it is all done without forays into string theory or other heady scientific mumbo jumbo.
This is a good engrossing read and I look forward to Graham Brown's third book. ( read the second one first)
First Line: The darkness of the jungle loomed above, its dense, tangled layers spreading like a circus tent from the towering pillars of massive trees.
When I read that Black Sun, the second Graham Brown thriller featuring Danielle Laidlaw, was out at the end of August, I thought I remembered the first sitting on my shelves. I took a look and was relieved that my memory was in proper working order for the moment. In no time at all, I was deep in the Amazon with Danielle in Black Rain.
Danielle Laidlaw is an investigator for a covert branch of the National Research Institute. She takes a team deep into the Amazon rain forest to discover the source of radioactive crystals, and to search for an ancient Mayan city. This puts Danielle and her group directly in the path of ruthless billionaire Richard Kaufman-- as well as an extremely hostile tribe of natives and violent man-eating creatures. Within days, Danielle is faced with choosing between the mission objective or the lives of her team and herself.
Even though I'm normally a character-driven reader, there are times when I want to read something fast and fun. Black Rain had the added bonus of being deep in the Amazon dealing with Mayan mythology, both of which interest me.
The plot is fast-paced and interesting, and even though thrillers are not known for characterization, one of them stood out in this novel. McCarter, a member of Laidlaw's team, behaved in a smug, self-righteous manner throughout most of the book, but when the chips were down about as far as they could go, he received two thumbs up from me. I'm just not used to being favorably impressed by characters in a thriller, and this means that I'm going to be looking for Graham Brown's Black Sun for my next Mayan mythology and Amazon rain forest fix. If you're in the mood for something fast, fun, interesting, and even scary at times, I suggest you give Graham Brown a try, too.
When I read that Black Sun, the second Graham Brown thriller featuring Danielle Laidlaw, was out at the end of August, I thought I remembered the first sitting on my shelves. I took a look and was relieved that my memory was in proper working order for the moment. In no time at all, I was deep in the Amazon with Danielle in Black Rain.
Danielle Laidlaw is an investigator for a covert branch of the National Research Institute. She takes a team deep into the Amazon rain forest to discover the source of radioactive crystals, and to search for an ancient Mayan city. This puts Danielle and her group directly in the path of ruthless billionaire Richard Kaufman-- as well as an extremely hostile tribe of natives and violent man-eating creatures. Within days, Danielle is faced with choosing between the mission objective or the lives of her team and herself.
Even though I'm normally a character-driven reader, there are times when I want to read something fast and fun. Black Rain had the added bonus of being deep in the Amazon dealing with Mayan mythology, both of which interest me.
The plot is fast-paced and interesting, and even though thrillers are not known for characterization, one of them stood out in this novel. McCarter, a member of Laidlaw's team, behaved in a smug, self-righteous manner throughout most of the book, but when the chips were down about as far as they could go, he received two thumbs up from me. I'm just not used to being favorably impressed by characters in a thriller, and this means that I'm going to be looking for Graham Brown's Black Sun for my next Mayan mythology and Amazon rain forest fix. If you're in the mood for something fast, fun, interesting, and even scary at times, I suggest you give Graham Brown a try, too.
Nancy S. (avidbookcollector) -
I thought, from description of this book, that is was a CIA-thriller/suspense-type novel, which is why I chose to read and review it. Imagine my surprise when midway through the book the author went off into the realm of science fiction and silliness.
I will not divulge any plot elements here, because it would most likely wreck the story for anyone else wanting to read this. To be very honest, I was definitely caught up in the story up until the characters' adventures in the jungles of Brazil, when I realized that the nature (and genre) of the story had changed. Not that I couldn't live with that, but the story became so unreal and so over the top plotwise that it was disappointing and caused my interest to wane, but I did go on and finish it.
I think this author shows promise in his writing style and his ability to think up incredible plots, and I did like the first part of the book, but if you write a book that is clearly sci-fi, please market it as such rather than as a CIA-type thriller. That's so not fair. For the positives, the book is very fast paced, there is a lot of action, and the author starts with a bang which sets up the later mystery of exactly what is out there in the Rain Forest jungle. I really wanted to like it, but it just didn't do it for me.
However, as usual, I find myself swimming against the tide of other reviewers who gave it 4 and 5 stars (out of 5), so this is yet another one you have to check out for yourself.
I will not divulge any plot elements here, because it would most likely wreck the story for anyone else wanting to read this. To be very honest, I was definitely caught up in the story up until the characters' adventures in the jungles of Brazil, when I realized that the nature (and genre) of the story had changed. Not that I couldn't live with that, but the story became so unreal and so over the top plotwise that it was disappointing and caused my interest to wane, but I did go on and finish it.
I think this author shows promise in his writing style and his ability to think up incredible plots, and I did like the first part of the book, but if you write a book that is clearly sci-fi, please market it as such rather than as a CIA-type thriller. That's so not fair. For the positives, the book is very fast paced, there is a lot of action, and the author starts with a bang which sets up the later mystery of exactly what is out there in the Rain Forest jungle. I really wanted to like it, but it just didn't do it for me.
However, as usual, I find myself swimming against the tide of other reviewers who gave it 4 and 5 stars (out of 5), so this is yet another one you have to check out for yourself.
