Scarecrow Returns (Scarecrow Series #4)

by Matthew Reilly

Overview

From the internationally bestselling author, the fourth novel in the thrilling Scarecrow series featuring “some of the wildest and most sustained battles in an action thriller in a long time…and a little bit of conspiracy" (Chicago Tribune).

From the internationally bestselling author, the fourth novel in the thrilling Scarecrow series featuring “some of the wildest and most sustained battles in an action thriller in a long time" (Chicago Tribune).

A Cold War doomsday device hidden deep in the Arctic.

A mysterious terrorist group about to unleash havoc upon an unsuspecting world. Only one team close enough to sabotage them.

Captain Shane Schofield, call sign “Scarecrow,” and his ragtag band of Marines and civilians are outnumbered and outgunned. But with only a few short hours till Armageddon, Scarecrow and his soldiers bravely undertake an edge-of-your-seat, white-knuckle adventure to save the Earth from total annihilation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416577607
Publisher:	Pocket Books
Publication date:	12/26/2012
Series:	Scarecrow Series , #4
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	496
Sales rank:	370,256
Product dimensions:	4.32(w) x 6.58(h) x 1.08(d)

About the Author

Matthew Reilly is the New York Times and #1 international bestselling author of numerous novels, including The Four Legendary Kingdoms, The Tournament, The Great Zoo of China, The Five Greatest Warriors, The Six Sacred Stones, Seven Deadly Wonders, Ice Station, Temple, Contest, Area 7, Scarecrow, and Scarecrow Returns, as well as the children’s book Hover Car Racer and the novella Hell Island. His books have been published in more than twenty languages in twenty countries, and he has sold more than 7.5 million copies worldwide. Visit him at MatthewReilly.com and at Facebook.com/OfficialMatthewReilly.

Editorial Reviews

Nobody writes action like Matthew Reilly.”

—Vince Flynn, New York Times bestselling author of Kill Shot

“Matthew Reilly is the king of hard-core action.”

—Brad Thor, New York Times bestselling author of Full Black

“Some of the wildest and most sustained battles in an action thriller in a long time. . . . Nonstop action, lots of explosions—and a little bit of conspiracy.”

—Chicago Tribune

“Matthew Reilly novels should come with health warnings on the cover. . . . [T]he non-stop life-threatening action . . . is not for the faint-hearted. It’s a wild ride.”

—The Daily Telegraph (Australia)

“For fans of action, [Matthew Reilly] is essential reading.”

—Library Journal

From the Publisher

After the initial stage setting, the outstanding fourth novel in Reilly’s action thriller series that began with Ice Station (1998) blasts off and never slows. Marine Capt. Shane M. “Scarecrow” Schofield, last seen in the novella Hell Island (2005), travels to the Arctic with a group of civilians and his female buddy and second-in-command—burly, six-foot-two, shaven-headed Gunnery Sgt. Gena Newman—to test a variety of advanced weaponry. Nearby, the secretive Army of Thieves, led by a man known only as the Lord of Anarchy, has taken over Dragon Island, a mothballed Russian secret weapons testing site. The ante rises after the Thieves announce their intention to explode the Tesla Device, a weapon powerful enough to ignite the world’s atmosphere and wipe out much of humanity. The characters offer enough flesh and blood to be convincing, but it’s the high-speed action and battle sequences that propel Reilly to the front of the pack of this particular subgenre. Agent: WME. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

A secret Russian facility in the Arctic has been seized by a team of elite commandos calling themselves the Army of Thieves. In four hours, the terrorists will launch the facility's doomsday missile, which will set the atmosphere of the Northern Hemisphere on fire. Capt. Shane Schofield (Ice Station; Area 7; Scarecrow), also known as Scarecrow, is called in to stop the deadly plot. Unfortunately, he and his team are about three hours away. VERDICT Reilly is the king of the action thriller, and he has written his best book in years. The relentless pace will leave the reader breathless. Fans who enjoy military fiction and blockbuster summer action movies will love the adrenaline rush. [See Prepub Alert, 8/1/11.]—Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L.

Library Journal

Scarecrow is back. The Army of Thieves presents itself as an anarchist group made up of once-imprisoned Pinochet regime torturers supplemented by assorted African mercenaries, rebels and terrorists. Leading the diabolical cadre is the acid-scarred Lord of Anarchy. On the island, the Thieves control a colossal thermobaric bomb capable of setting the atmosphere of the northern hemisphere aflame. Reilly (Hell Island, 2006, etc.) launches his hero, USMC Captain Shane Schofield, call-sign "Scarecrow," against the Army of Thieves. Scarecrow, recuperating from a bloody mission which roused the ire of the French so much that they put a bounty on his head, had been assigned to a cold-weather weapons-testing mission at an encampment near Dragon Island. With a narrative line suitable for the latest XBox 360 got-to-have-it gamer edition, Reilly delivers nonstop action to propel Scarecrow and his team on and off the island. Characters come, play a part big or small and get shot or blown up, and sometimes come back to life, and it's all equal opportunity mayhem. There's a modicum of backstory, and the text is interspersed with maps and line drawings of weapons and facilities, but the escapades are exaggerated Moonraker-fantastical, with more gadget magic and without Fleming's Bond-character nuances. Think testosterone-bulked automatic weapons, stolen Ospreys, mini-subs and a machine-gun-toting robot named Bertie. Action comic overkill.

Kirkus Reviews