Genre: Thriller / Adventure
Rating: 4 WaterTowers (Awesome thrill ride)
This book was signed by James Rollins and sold at Costco. I grabbed it.
2003:
At the recently destroyed Zoo in Bagdad, Iraq two boys searching for scraps of food witness a strange beast mauling a murderer. Under the cover of the chaos, they escape.
Now:
Dr. Lorna Polk is the veterinarian in charge of the Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species (ACRES) frozen zoo of endangered animals. As she pulls in to work, her boss is there to meet her…..as is a Border Patrol helicopter.
After finding a beached trawler, the leader of the Border Patrol team investigating the boat called ACRES and, knowing her backgound, requested Lorna. Jack Menard, Border Patrol, has known Lorna since childhood, but, they had lost touch, until now.
Boarding the boat, Lorna finds an assortment of strangely abnormal animals in cages. Conjoined brown capuchin monkeys, abnormally large vampire bats, a bald parrot that can recite pi (3.1415…) to hundreds of places, and, in an open cage, a very large, sick, jaguar cub.
The mother cat is missing, and Lorna deduces that it has a healthy baby with her (making her very dangerous). Judging by the size of the ill baby, Lorna figures the mother cat, white as a ghost, could be the size of a small car with large sabretooth tiger like teeth.
Jack and Lorna leave the boat to try to find the mama cat before she causes problems.
Too late.
As the cat moves north, it leaves behind a trial of gory death and destruction. The cat needs to be captured or killed.
Meanwhile, the remaining animals have been taken to ACRES where the team makes some startling discoveries. The animals brains have pentagon shaped structures that look natural rather than man-made, and, when all the animals are in the same room, their brain waves synchronize as if their individual brains are functioning as one. Very interesting.
How did the animals come to be like this? Where did they come from? And where were they going?
The answers start flowing explosively as ACRES is attacked, many animals beheaded, and people killed. Lorna and Jack do their best to save everyone, but……well you are just going to have to read “Altar of Eden” to know what happens next. 😉
In true James Rollins fashion, “Altar of Eden” is a roller coaster thriller without the coasting. Thrills, action, and plenty of gore will keep you riveted to your seat until the very end. Along the way, “Altar of Eden” is filled with enough science and nature to make this engineer very happy: Fractals, genetics, telepathy, animal intelligence, and best of all, the great scenery around the bayou areas of New Orleans.
Pick up or download a copy today…you will not be disappointed.
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