Those thinking of abandoning their everyday lives and starting over again on a secret tropical island will find Garrison's latest an invaluable and entertaining instruction manual. The author's earlier books (Sea Hunter
; Fire and Ice
; Buried at Sea
) have shown him a master storyteller/sailor, and this gale force novel of high seas suspense reinforces that judgment. In 2001, the Page brothers, Aiden and Charlie, are in their World Trade Center office plotting a way to prop up the failing investment banking business they helm and at the same time respond to a threatening letter from the Department of Justice. Suddenly, a passenger jet slams into the building, and the fiery aftermath presents a possible solution. In the heavy smoke the brothers become separated, but each escapes the building and disappears. Months later, Aiden's 15-year-old daughter, Morgan, is mourning the loss of her father and Uncle Charlie in the Trade Center disaster when she receives a three-second silent phone call that she insists is from her father. No one believes her, so she runs away and makes a 6,000-mile journey in a 27-foot sailboat to search for him. The brothers, each unaware that the other is alive, flee independently to Blind Man Island, the South Sea hideaway of their boss, the secretive Henry Ho Hong—even though Henry may have been the man who turned them in to the Justice Department. The brothers' journey is fast-paced and exciting, but spunky Morgan's heroic solo sail is the real nail-biter. There are boatloads of action, and Garrison comes up with a real rarity—a plausible, entirely original superweapon. The lives of 50 million Americans hang in the balance. Sailors and landlubbers alike will be up all night with this one. (Jan.)
FYI
:
Garrison received $1 million from Disney for the film rights to his last novel,
Fire and Ice.
