SHADOW ZONE

An undersea exploration reveals the mysteries of a lost Atlantis-type land and a possible superweapon in this second Hannah Bryson sub-centered thriller.

The land of Marinth is an irresistible lure to brilliant explorer/inventor Bryson. Even as she mourns her brother and the mysterious Russian she met in her first outing, she thrills to uncover the beautiful hieroglyphs that tell of a high culture and will perhaps explain why it declined. But even as she struggles to uncover the final clues to the island nation’s demise, the gorgeous scientist is beset by strange forces. For one thing, the dolphins on the site do not seem to want her there, turning from friendly, even life-saving allies, into a powerful aggressive force. And her prime source of funding, a sleazy money man named Ebersole, is looking to cut the mission short. Even when she, and her buddy Melis, succeed in rescuing a crucial piece of evidence, strange forces turn against them: The artifact, a quartz-inlaid trellis, is stolen en route to her study center. To Hannah, this makes no sense. Not only is the trellis valuable only from a scientific standpoint, it will be easily viewable by everyone. But people are dying, and clues suggest a Russian connection. So Hannah sets out to find Kirov, the mysterious and sexy sub commander she flirted with in her first adventure. Before long, both American intelligence and international weapons dealers are involved with what could be the most potent bio-terror weapon ever—or a scientific breakthrough. The mother-son writing team (Silent Thunder, 2008, etc.) don’t work very hard at building believable characters. Kirov, for example, is simply “[s]exy as hell...Sort of Sean Connery meets Harrison Ford.” But they know how to move a plot forward, with a short and snappy prose style that won’t challenge anyone’s vocabulary. Light, sexy thriller peppered with enough science and mysticism to make any beach seem a little more exotic.