The Prometheus Man

Tom Reese, the 22-year-old hero of Reardon’s intriguing if flawed first novel, is searching for answers into why his brother, Eric, who was employed by a pharmaceutical company in Paris, was murdered. After stealing the identity of Tom Blake, a CIA officer who’s proficient in Russian and graduated from Georgetown University magna cum laude, and infiltrating a high-level investigation, Reese, a college dropout who “was nobody really,” uncovers information about the mysterious program that Eric was involved in, Project Prometheus. Everyone associated with the top-secret program, Reese discovers, seems to be dying untimely deaths—and he may be the next target. Reardon writes well and keeps the action moving as he explores the unforeseen consequences of Project Prometheus, but Reese lacks credibility. The sheer implausibility of many sequences (he hot-wires a car and then pulls off high-speed maneuvers that would make James Bond envious) risks losing thriller fans who value verisimilitude. Agent: Stacia Decker, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. (Jan.)