cover image The Three Secret Cities

The Three Secret Cities

Matthew Reilly. Gallery, $26.99 (448p) ISBN 978-1-5011-6719-5

Reilly doesn’t stint on the crazy in his fifth thriller featuring Capt. Jack West Jr. (after 2017’s The Four Legendary Kingdoms). West, representing Orlando, the King of Land, has just prevailed in the Great Games held in the Underworld, becoming only the fourth such champion, joining Osiris, Gilgamesh, and Hercules. But West did not get the prize for which he contended, “the Mysteries that would see the Earth safely through the coming crisis,” because an assassination attempt on Lord Hades and a revolt by a Minotaur army disrupted the proceedings. West is then targeted for death by the Knights of the Golden Eight, who have also been charged with capturing his daughter, Lily, and her friend Alby Calvin, setting up a wild ride as the trio try to remain safe. Reilly doesn’t make it easy to take his conceit of hidden realities and the manipulation of human history by powerful supernatural beings seriously. West’s allies have names like Sky Monster, Stretch, and Pooh Bear, and Hades intervenes with New York City planners to make sure that a new luxury high-rise doesn’t impede the view from his own apartment. This one’s strictly for series fans. [em]Agent: Suzanne Gluck, WME. (Dec.) [/em]