After narrowly preventing a global pandemic, Mason and his team discover an even deadlier threat has already been set into motion. An unknown adversary has produced enough of a lethal nerve gas to wipe every major city off the face of the world, and their only clue to finding it lies in a cryptic message written in the blood of a man found entombed behind a concrete wall. It isn’t until another victim appears - right in the heart of Central Park - that Mason realises the murders are personal in nature, and figuring out the connection between them is the key to averting catastrophe.
Eight million lives hang in the balance and their only chance of surviving lies in the hands of Mason, his old friends, and a new partner he’s not entirely sure he can trust. Can his team track down a sinister agent codenamed Scarecrow before toxic gas fills the streets of New York City, or will the true power pulling the strings from behind the scenes - the Thirteen - succeed in enacting its genocidal agenda?
This was an excellent entrant to this series, and one that potentially allows Laurence to pivot the series a bit if needed. Laurence shows excellent creative work in coming up with some very interesting chemical weapon delivery mechanisms, to the point that I would not be surprised to learn he has drawn the attention of various alphabet soup agencies while researching this book or at least once it publishes and they begin reading it. Interesting use of a long-known-yet-still-not-officially-acknowledged bit of world history to further this saga, and particularly well executed there as well. While I very much hope Laurence is allowed to pursue the initial direction of the series, this book sets up a pivot into a short Black List type tale with much more at stake than that show ever really had going and that pivot could be very nearly as interesting given Laurence's storytelling abilities. Very much recommended.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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31 May, 2020:
Finished reading
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31 May, 2020:
Reviewed