coolreads# Retro Books# The Eden Prophecy

The Eden Prophecy
Author: Graham Brown
Publisher: Ebury Press
ISBN: 9780091949181
Year Published: 2012

In southern Iran in 1979, archeologists Ahmad Bashir and Peter McKenzie discovered a copper scroll similar to that which was found among the famous Dead Sea Scrolls. Bashir believes this scroll could be 7,000 years old, but whatever secrets it may hold, they are lost as quickly as they were found as a sudden storm sweeps the scroll from Bashir's hand as he tried to escape the pursuing jihadists on the back of a lorry and within minutes, it disappears beneath the vastness of the desert sand.

So begins the thriller The Eden Prophecy by Graham Brown. The scroll is eventually found again, and is believed to contain information on the location of the Garden of Eden and thus, knowledge of life itself. That information is beyond value to some, for it can be used for the benefit of all mankind or it can be used to destroy it.

In the present day, a new virus has been identified, one that defies explanation of how it works. It doesn't necessarily kill - though it seems perfectly capable of doing so - yet paradoxically seems to have unusual curative properties. Its source is traced to Ranga Milan, a geneticist in Paris, who denies knowledge of it. Regardless, Milan realises he is in danger, and he reaches out to a friend known only as Hawker, a once rising star in the CIA, now a mercenary for hire, for help.

Hawker travels to France to meet Milan but unfortunately, he is too late; Milan is dead. Hawker, however, links up with Danielle Laidlaw, an operative with the National Research Institute (NRI), a hybrid government organisation that functioned like the CIA but in the world of industrial secrets. She is investigating Milan. Together, they set off to find who killed Milan, which they hope will lead them to the true source of the virus.

The Eden Prophecy is an action-packed thriller, filled with scientific intrigue, well developed characters, notably Hawker, a man unable to escape his past but determined to make up for it; and Drako, an intelligent but supremely evil villain and an ambitious storyline that maintains a measure of credibility throughout even though much of what happens is indeed incredible.

In their search for the source of the virus as well as the secret of life itself, they soon find dead bodies cropping up all around them. Soon, Hawker and Laidlaw find themselves the target of hired killers.

From the back streets of Paris to an underground auction in the catacombs of Beirut, to the merciless deserts of Iran, Hawker and Laidlaw have to brave bullets and survive attacks while they hunt a murderous cut leader whose scientific arsenal could lead humanity to a new Eden or unlesh hell on Earth itself.

Filled with nonstop action, the thriller offers readers a ride filled with interesting theories on immortality and different versions of the Garden of Eden. It culminates in a climactic ending of good ultimately triumphing over evil.