The Inheritors

Jeremiah, Terrorist Prophet, last seen in New America (1999), returns to set off a global catastrophe in the latest installment of a hokey series. After a decade of self-imposed exile in China, Jeremiah reemerges in 2018, armed with a new heart harvested from a human clone and a narcissistic plot to take over North America by unleashing a deadly virus that only his loyal band of followers have been inoculated against. As Jeremiah imagines ways to impose his rule, the antiterrorist Gemini Group, led by Jeremiah's former lover Laura Delaney and her new husband, Steve Wallace, are trying to devise ways to derail the evil prophet's master plan, while Jeremiah and Laura's twin 18-year-old sons get caught in the middle of their parents' intense battle. For a terrorist with a destructive reputation, Jeremiah's worldwide campaign wanes quickly. The characters do little to rally the cause with their comic book dialogue and predictable actions, although they indulge in numerous gratuitous sexual romps. Much of the plot, which moves from China to South Dakota, Switzerland to Atlanta, to secret compounds deep beneath the Appalachian Mountains, remains unresolved at the end, foiled by unexplained coincidences and absurd schemes. Perhaps a reader or two will hope for a sequel. (Mar.)