This was passable until about the halfway mark, then it got dull. Definitely not as good as the Pendergast series. The writing was good, just not that interesting of a plot. ( )

El FBI pide al ex agente Gideon Crew, experto en operaciones nucleares, que haga de mediador en un caso de secuestro. Un tal Chalker, un científico recién convertido al islam, se ha atrincherado en una casa de Queens con la familia de su casero y amenaza con matarlos. Antes de que Gideon logre liberar a los rehenes, uno de ellos recibe un disparo. Pero los problemas no han hecho más que empezar: el secuestrador muere durante la operación y su cadáver revela altos índices de radioactividad.

Another excellent adventure and thrill ride! What make your heart pound is the things that happen is these adventures really could happen in today's world!! ( )

Really the best part of this book for me was the parts that take place in New Mexico. I know a lot of New Mexico, and the parts I don't know I can follow on Google maps. New Mexico is my favorite place in the world.
Gideon crew has a cabin in the Jemez mountains, a place I've been to throughout my childhood and also as an adult. What I don't like is when he goes fishing, catches a beautiful fish, and eats it.
Also it's pretty dumb how he succumbs to this young woman. We never find out how old Gideon is, or if he's supposed to be some hot stuff, but in this book this young beautiful woman is supposed to just melt for him once they go through the rigors of escaping from the FBI and their various government agencies.
The best part of the book for me was when they they escaped on alida's horse and finally let the poor animal go, and they find their way to an abandoned mine. They go down into this mine, and when the FBI etc go after them in the mine they find this shaft where there's an old car on rails. One of those old push-pull-handled cars like in the cartoons.
"He stumbled over something on the ground. " 'Let me have the lighter.'
She palmed it to him. He flicked it on and saw rail tracks laid onto the floor of the tunnel. An old hand car, or pump trolley, sat on a nearby siding.
A volley of shots sent them diving to the ground. Flashlight beams lanced up and around them. 'get on the handcar,' Gideon whispered. 'Quickly.'
In a second Alida had leapt onto the cart. Gideon gave it a shove, running it onto the main track and up to speed, then jumped on himself. The pump handle moved up and down with a creaking of metal, Rusty and covered with dust but still in working order. Gideon worked the handle to keep it going as more rounds ricocheted through the cavern. The car went squealing along the metal track, gaining speed as it entered a downhill grade.
'Oh, shit,' said alida.
Gideon stopped pumping -- but it made no difference. Faster and faster went the pump, its twin handles flying up and down on their own. The shots and cries began to recede.
'This was a really bad idea,' said alida, crouching and gripping the wooden sides of the handcar.
The car was now barreling downhill, in utter blackness, heading for only God knew where."
I always wanted to go on one of those handcars on the railroad. But I've never seen one that I could get on.

Now, gideon is supposed to die in about a year, at the end of this book. he's got some kind of tangle of blood vessels in his brain that is so tied up, so it stretches out until it bursts. That's what happened to my mama, actually. But I have a feeling that Gideon is not really going to die. ( )

I've always liked Preston & Child books, and I can always count on them to deliver a fast-paced story that isn't weighty, isn't hard to digest and isn't too far out-of-this world the suspension of my belief must be paramount as I read. When I pick up one of their books, I can expect the plausible mixed with the implausible, the improbable mixed with probable.

Gideon's Corpse was certainly no exception to the rule. It was exactly what I expect from a Preston & Child book and didn't let me down. If you've never read one before, you might say things like "who says that" or "that wouldn't happen in real life". That's understandable, but the deus ex machina scattered throughout the story doesn't make it any less a bedside read than any other thriller out there. It's part of the genre. This isn't literary gold and it isn't marketed as one.

I really enjoyed Gideon's Corpse, probably more than the previous book in the series, Gideon's Sword. ( )