Review: "Deception Point" by Dan Brown

WOW just wow. I have just completed reading my 3rd book by Dan Brown, and I am still out of breath. "Deception Point" is a thrill a minute. It is like watching a season of "24" but all at one sitting.

I guess I should tell you about the book. First you have a very close presidential campaign. One candidate, the incumbent,President Hearny, is a huge NASA supporter.  His opponent, Senator Sedgwick Sexton, bases his campaign on the issue that NASA is a losing venture and should be privatized so taxpayer money could be used for other endeavors like public schools.  Senator Sexton, may be ahead in the polls and could win the election hands down, isn't playing fair. First he is under suspicion of accepting enormous illegal campaign contributions from private aerospace companies who have billions to gain from the privatization of NASA. And has already been under the thumb of the press of a sex scandal with his lead campaign aid.

Then the world changes.  A NASA satellite detects a large, high-density rock buried 200 feet below the Milne Ice Shelf on Ellesmere Island, high in the Arctic Circle. NASA scientists determine the rock to be a meteor containing fossils proving that life exists elsewhere in the universe. This looks great for the President, but he even finds it a little "convenient" in the timing. So he brings on 4 independent, civilian scientists to prove the meteor is for real. And to help further the proof, he brings on intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton, the daughter of Senator Sedgewick Sexton.

The excitement begins when the scientists start to doubt the authenticity and then start dying. The race begins back to Washington D.C. from the Arctic Circle to stop the President from announcing the meteor to the world.  And all along finding further proof the meteor has been faked. The scientists will "parasail" across a glacier in the Arctic Circle, ride an ice berg and then ride a submarine in the Arctic Ocean. Then fly by helicopter to a research vessel sitting on top of a volcano about to blow off the New Jersey coast. Oh yeah, and this vessel is surrounded by deadly hammerhead sharks. All this time being chased by the military elite "Delta Force."  Oh, wait, did I tell you that before all this Rachel rides an f-14 to the Arctic Circle?

It's non-stop action and science and espionage in "Deception Point."  Make sure you have some time set aside for this page turner you won't be able to put down.