The Babel Effect
Daniel Hecht
When pregnant Jess is kidnapped by a religious leader, who fears that science will destroy his faith-based empire, the action ratchets up several levels, skipping over some of the hard science that keeps this would-be thriller mired in detail much of the time. Author Daniel Hecht posits as good a raison d'être for the root causes of violence as any other suspense novelist; it's an intriguing idea, well-worked out in the plot. And Jess McCloud, vainly trying to reconcile her decidedly unscientific faith with scientific empiricism, is an interestingly complex character. Unfortunately, she's missing for much of the novel, and her husband, whose efforts to retrace her research in order to find her, is a much less fascinating hero. But that won't stop fans of Robin Cook, Michael Crichton, et al. for sticking with Hecht to the last page. --Jane Adams
Tagged as:
- thriller 4
- mystery 3
- crime 3
- suspense 3
- realistic 2
- horror 2
- medical horror 2
- religion 1
- contemporary 1
- spirituality 1
- Add topics
- format - reader age
- book 1
- adult fiction 1