Bill Napier Splintered Icon

Splintered Icon

Bill Napier

St. Martin's, Sep 2005, $6.99, 368 pp.

ISBN: 0312936680

In Lincoln, England local gentry Sir Toby Tebbit hires antiques documents dealer Harry Blake to evaluate papers he just inherited from a relative who just died in Jamaica. The next morning Harry visits Toby at the latter's home and makes a quick assessment of what look like a several century old journal. Toby asks Harry to take the journal with him to transcribe, but not to mention his connection to anyone.

A woman calling herself Cassandra offers Harry a lot of money for the journal; he refuses, but as she departs she warns him that other means will be used to persuade his handing over the journal. Fred Sweet demands it next saying he will use a poisonous pen on Harry. Not long after that Harry learns that someone murdered his client. Knowing that the journal contains information outside his discipline he asks marine historian Zola Kahn to help him understand why someone would commit homicide over a four hundred years old tome before he becomes victim number two. Harry will soon learn that the Elizabethan Era journal could cause a pandemic holy war that would make the Crusades look like child play.

This action-packed thriller never slows down as attempts to harm, maim, or kill Harry pile up over possession of the journal. The storyline is action-packed but contains an extra edge because Harry is everyman going about his daily business and not a hero; he will remind the audience of Roger O. Thornhill from Hitchcock's North by Northwest. The pair of conspiracies seems a stretch, but fans will not care as they learn what they are and wonder if Harry can survive.

Harriet Klausner