The Lucifer Code
Charles Brokaw
Forge, Aug 31 2010, $25.99
ISBN: 9780765320933

Linguistics expert Dr. Thomas Lourds flies from London to Istanbul University to study artifacts that westerners have not seen. At the airport, he meets a beautiful "fan girl" Kristine Webber whom he offers to show her the sights of the city. Kristine grabs his arm in a painful hold and informs the professor he will accompany her; any resistance will lead to his limb broken. When a man offers to help her with her ailing "father", Kristine places a taser in Thomas' hand and forces him to shoot the good Samaritan. Bullets soon fly and many lie dead and wounded at Ataturk International Airport. The CIA is stunned as this was a simple pickup not a frontal assault.

Lourds goes from danger to hell when he is ordered to interpret coded scrolls that the group believes will lead to the greatest revelation ever written; a lost scroll authored by John who authored the Book of Revelation. The scroll contains writings that some fear will mark the beginning of the end of the world while others pray this is true. He becomes the target of several groups who want to control the scroll. On the other hand, his only ally is his former girlfriend deadly Dr. Olympia Adnan who invited him to Istanbul in the first place.

This is an over the top of Mount Ararat Byzantium thriller that grips the audience from the moment Kristine strongholds the professor and never slows down as the hero goes from one lethal scenario to another leading to the translation of the Lucifer Code. Readers who suspend credibility will fully relish Lourds' latest exhilarating roller adventures (see The Atlantis Code) as he learns his mom was right to never talk to strangers; even beautiful ones.

Harriet Klausner