She Treads Softly: The Last Second

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

The Last Second

The Last Second by Catherine Coulter, J. T. Ellison
Gallery Books: 3/26/19
eBook review copy; 464 pages
ISBN-13: 9781501138225
A Brit in the FBI Series #6

The Last Second by Catherine Coulter, J. T. Ellison is a recommended thriller, highly for the right reader, and 6th in the Brit in the FBI Series.

Dr. Nevaeh Patel is an astronaut who left NASA after she returned from a mission on the International Space Station with claims that aliens, who she calls the Numen, saved her life.She was declared unfit to return to space and she resigned. Currently she is working for Galactus, a French company which launches satellites into space. The owner of Galactus, Jean-Pierre Broussard, is on a treasure hunt in his yacht for the Holy Grail. Nevaeh has nefarious plans into place. She has placed a nuclear bomb on the current satellite sent into space and plans to detonate it, causing an EMP. Then she believes the Numen will come and she will rule the world with them. If she can take the Holy Grail from Jean-Pierre Broussard, then she believes the Grail will give her immortality.

FBI Special Agents Nicholas Drummond and Michaela Caine are on vacation when they learn that their friend Grant, a body guard for Broussard, is in trouble and they leap into action to help him. They also learn about the plan to cause an EMP which they need to stop.

This is an action-packed thriller, but it also expects you to swallow a whole load of disbelief and improbabilities for the bulk of the action to take place. I had a difficult time with this. I imagine fans of the series who have read the other books in it will accept any scenario to get to the action and the subsequent denouement. There is just a few days to stop crazy people doing believable things while a hurricane is coming, and maybe aliens.

Now, the quality of the writing is very good, which helps the acceptance of some of the absurdities. The main characters aren't quit as well developed as a new reader would hope, but this is also the sixth book in the series. New readers might want to start with earlier books for a greater understanding of the background of these characters. The new characters are basically well developed.

This is an exciting book I like thrillers and can accept quite a lot of speculation in the action, but this novel went just a bit too far afield. If I find myself shaking my head and talking back to the novel, it is not a good sign. Fans of the series will likely jump right in and ignore any questionable occurrences. Start with the earlier books, if possible, for a better reading experience.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Gallery Books.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.