Deception Point - Dan Brown

 

Another book I randomly picked up at the Founder's Club Book Fair. Like everyone else, I've read Brown's Da Vinci Code and (I believe anyway) Angels and Demons so I thought I'd give this one a try, as well. I consider Brown kinda like Stephen King - almost comic book novelists (and I love comic books!) in that their writings are pure entertainment - nothing too deep or moralistic, just fun escapism, which is something we all could use these days!

Of course, Brown does try to keep things relatively complicated and includes several different viewpoints and several different stories that intersect in one way or another. This is kind of a sci-fi/political thriller, with candidates running for POTUS, interstellar life, espionage, intrigue and murder all intertwined.

Brown spends numerous chapters building up to a reveal, only to then have everything pulled away so you are not sure what to think about anything that has happened in any of the storylines up to that point. There are plenty of twists'n'turns and it's hard to know who to believe in any scenario.

My comic book attention span appreciates the brief chapters, as we jump from scene to scene, and Brown keeps the tension going throughout. There are innumerable cliches here - the good-looking, smart and brave heroine and hero, the childhood trauma resurfacing, the plucky-but-goofy sidekick, the improbable escapes (multiple) from certain death, and more - but ya gotta roll with those and let suspension of disbelief kick in. Like I say, nothing deep or anything like that, but an entertaining read.