I’ve enjoyed Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child as authors in the past. The movie adaptation of Relic was probably their most notable mainstream success, but this author pairing has managed to punch out hit after hit of science-fiction meets ancient relics. They premise Indiana Jones-like stories with an FBI agent. Think Mulder meets Indy.
The Wheel of Darkness is one of their more recent paperbacks, and I picked it up to take with me on a quick trip out of town. Overall, it was a good read – a page turner with mystery, suspense, vivid sets, and an internal struggle between main characters. The ship becomes a central character too, as mysterious dangers emerge while steaming across the Atlantic ocean. Like I said, it’s a page turner. My only complaint in the book really centers in the fact that there’s too much of this book that feels like the movie Titanic. There’s the no-BS captain that feels archetyped from years of naval movies and books where the crew subverts the captain thinking that he’s out of line. It just felt typical.
However, don’t let a couple nagging characters bring down an otherwise enjoyable trip book. It’s not a spectacular piece of literature with some deep moral or moment of insight. What Wheel of Darkness will give you is a good, complete novel.
