The Lost Island (Gideon Crew Series #3)

by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

Overview

Gideon Crew--brilliant scientist, master thief--is living on borrowed time. When his mysterious employer, Eli Glinn, gives him an eyebrow-raising mission, he has no reason to refuse. Gideon's task: steal a page from the priceless Book of Kells, now on display in New York City and protected by unbreakable security.



Accomplishing the impossible, Gideon steals the parchment--only to learn that hidden beneath the gorgeously illuminated image is a treasure map dating back to the time of the ancient Greeks. As they ponder the strange map, they realize that the treasure it leads to is no ordinary fortune. It is something far more precious: an amazing discovery that could perhaps even save Gideon's life.



Together with his new partner, Amy, Gideon follows a trail of cryptic clues to an unknown island in a remote corner of the Caribbean Sea. There, off the hostile and desolate Mosquito Coast, the pair realize the extraordinary treasure they are hunting conceals an even greater shock-a revelation so profound that it may benefit the entire human race . . . if Gideon and Amy can survive.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455584000
Publisher:	Hachette Book Group
Publication date:	08/05/2014
Series:	Gideon Crew Series , #3
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	228,698
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.92(d)

About the Author

The thrillers of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child "stand head and shoulders above their rivals" (Publishers Weekly). Preston and Child's Relic and The Cabinet of Curiosities were chosen by readers in a National Public Radio poll as being among the one hundred greatest thrillers ever written, and Relic was made into a number-one box office hit movie. They are coauthors of the famed Pendergast series and their recent novels include Fever Dream, Cold Vengeance, Two Graves, and Gideon's Corpse. In addition to his novels, Preston writes about archaeology for the New Yorker and Smithsonian magazines. Lincoln Child is a former book editor who has published five novels of his own, including the huge bestseller Deep Storm.
Readers can sign up for The Pendergast File, a monthly "strangely entertaining note" from the authors, at their website, www.PrestonChild.com. The authors welcome visitors to their alarmingly active Facebook page, where they post regularly.

Place of Birth:

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Education:

B.A., Pomona College, 1978

Website:

http://www.prestonchild.com

Editorial Reviews

05/12/2014
In Preston and Child’s sparkling third Gideon Crew novel (after 2012’s Gideon’s Corpse), Eli Glinn of Effective Engineering Solutions orders Crew to steal the Book of Kells, “the finest illuminated book in existence,” from New York’s Morgan Library, where it’s on loan from the Irish government—and protected by a highly sophisticated security system. When the success of this nearly impossible mission reveals a treasure map with links to ancient Greek history, Glinn sends Gideon and Amy, another operative in his employ, on a jaunt to the Caribbean. There Gideon and Amy, who briefly poses as his wife, face dangers from treasure hunters, nature, and an erosion of trust in each other. Gideon refreshingly doesn’t fit the superhero mold, and the enigmatic Amy is more than his equal in daring and intelligence. Fans of H. Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs will find a lot to like. Agent: Eric Simonoff, William Morris Endeavor. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"The action zigzags like an out-of-control rocket toward a double-deceptive conclusion."—Kirkus Reviews on Gideon's Corpse

"Gideon, an engaging fellow from the get-go, lives up to his initial promise, demonstrating an intelligence and resourcefulness that should endear him to adventure fans."—Booklist on Gideon's Corpse

"Like Michael Crichton, Preston and Child weave their stories at a thrilling pace...Preston and Child never fail to entertain. And GIDEON'S CORPSE is a thriller that ranks high among their many co-authored offerings to date."—BookReporter.com

"Preston and Child deliver a tight, literate thriller...The writing is fast-paced and cinematic."—New Mexico Magazine on Gideon's Corpse

"Ever timely and provocative, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child have given us yet another one of their taut page-turners in GIDEON'S CORPSE...The issue is never if he'll escape, but how. It's the thrill of the ride that counts, and GIDEON'S CORPSE gives the reader a front seat."
—Albuquerque Journal on Gideon's Corpse

"The writing is taut and intense with twists and turns to surprise even the die-hard thriller fan...the authors make it fresh and original."—RT Reviews on Gideon's Corpse

"Sherlock Holmes fans will relish Preston and Child's 13th novel featuring eccentric FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast (after 2012's Two Graves), one of their best in this popular series...easily stands on its own with only passing references to Pendergast's complex backstory."—Publishers Weekly (starred review) on White Fire

"Preston and Child have done it again! WHITE FIRE continues their white hot streak of bestselling suspense as the most eccentric and ruthlessly clever FBI agent in the business, Pendergast, takes on old money and even older secrets with some literary help from Sherlock Holmes. Simply brilliant!"—Lisa Gardner on White Fire

From the Publisher

03/15/2014
In this third in the Gideon Crew series, our hero discovers a lost civilization—something Preston actually helped to do recently on an expedition to Honduras, which uncovered a staggering city in ruins deep in the rainforest.

Library Journal

2014-06-05
Preston and Child (Gideon’s Sword, 2011, etc.) sail Gideon Crew into his third adventure for Effective Engineering Solutions, a "company specializing in failure analysis" that's the brainchild of Eli Glinn, a banged-up ex-military genius who pilots his enterprise from a power wheelchair.EES assigns Crew a simple Caribbean jaunt to find an exotic plant with near-magical healing powers. But first, he'll need to sneak intothe Morgan Library in New York and steal part of Ireland’s priceless Book of Kells because the Phorkys Map, an ancient Greek text that points the way to the coveted plant, is on the reverse side. In spite of Swiss bank–level security, Crew’s now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t Kells caper takes no more time than he’ll need to sink a ship full of treasure-hunting Caribbean pirates. Thinking Crew knows the location of billions in bullion, the bad guys stumble upon him and his EES-assigned partner, Amy, a techno-type with Ph.D.s in classical languages and sociology. No meet-cute romance here for Crew and Amy; it’s eyes only on the map left by Odysseus, he of the legendary voyage. The authors crank up their descriptive powers when the pair meet Miskito Indians and then canoe offshore to search for the "lotus"—the healing plant—on deserted volcanic islands. Deserted because the census overlooked the last surviving Cyclops, "something out of a B movie, a huge muscled Neanderthal" who's "nine feet tall, with a massive head on a thickly muscled neck" and "a single glossy eye the size of a plate." The characters are static. The plot is breakneck violent. Geekery is prevalent, with Glinn employing QBA—supercomputer quantitative behavioral analysis, combining history, sociology and statistics which "can predict, to a certain extent, human behavior"—which works well except for the unforeseen murder and mayhem, betrayal and suicide.Preston and Child keep an eye out for the legendary and introduce Cyclops, mystical humanoid, to stretch the boundaries ofthe action-adventure novel.

Kirkus Reviews