"The Manuscript," book one of The Delphi Chronicle series by Russell Blake, was pretty exciting. Books two and three, collectively reviewed under their titles, got worse the farther along they went.

"The Manuscript" introduces us to a famed literary agent who mysteriously gets emailed a manuscript detailing amazing, earth-shattering secrets (which aren't yet revealed to the reader). But upon wanting to email the sender back, the agent finds the address--and email itself--is gone from his computer. So he calls in Michael Derrigan, a local private security guy and former SEAL to help him figure out what happened. The agent happened to print the text and had given it to Michael. This starts the ball rolling where anyone associated with the agent, including the agent himself, is killed. Everyone but Michael.

So Michael starts a cross-country trek to escape the killers but to also get to the bottom of who sent the manuscript and who wants its contents suppressed.

While this was an intriguing start, I'd strongly encourage you to first read my review of Books two and three before considering whether or not to waste your time. ( )