Book Review: Armageddon Conspiracy, by John Thompson

            Well, it’s review number thirteen and I just got lucky. This week, I dove into the world of John Thompson’s Armageddon Conspiracy—a high-paced thriller jam-packed with action and intrigue, wrapped up in a knot of strong character development and sealed with a bomb. This story hits the ground running and never stops. Generally, this is the part of the intro paragraph where I point out the book’s flaws, but I can’t think of anything to put here.

Now this is a cover

             Armageddon Conspiracy starts with a bang as a bunch of bombs detonate in a New York subway system. The mysterious American who nervously caused the detonation retreats to his sanctuary where he engages in a little light snake-handling. He’s none other than Prescott Biddle, a Wall Street billionaire whose ‘god-given’ gift to predict the market has apparently caught the attention of the FBI.

            Our hero, Brent Lucas, is cajoled into going undercover at Biddle’s firm—the aptly named Genesis Advisors—to ferret out insider trading. What he finds is a whole lot worse. Apparently, Biddle believes it’s his Christian duty to bring about Armageddon. He’s working with a terrorist organization known as the Wahaddi Brotherhood in a plot to smuggle missiles into New York and then assassinate the president. But there’s a lot of laws they have to break to cover their tracks—and little does Brent know he’s been set up to take the fall. Soon Brent, his ex-girlfriend, and his cranky uncle are all caught up in a race against time to find the missiles and stop Biddle before his plan comes to fruition.

            Two things that really stood out to me in this story were the strong supporting characters and well edited prose. The interactions between Abu Sayeed—the Middle Eastern terrorist—and Biddle manage to be darkly humorous and extremely entertaining, and Abu Sayeed is so well written you almost want him to succeed. FBI agent Ann Jenkins, who’s picked the wrong week to quit smoking, acts as a grounding rod for the story even as things spiral out of control around her. Brent, the main character, does have a few moments of bland heroism, but otherwise I found his struggle to balance his desires to earn money and to have a fulfilling career pretty compelling.

            Highs: Establishing tension. Right off the bat, we’ve got a ton of compelling questions to ask—and we really want to see them answered. Supporting characters. As mentioned above, they’re both strong and interesting. The twists. I don’t want to spoil too much, but there were some moments that made my jaw drop. Use of POV. The narrative contains several different POVs, but all fit together well.

            Low: Character names. Introduces two characters named Fred in a row, and Brent and Biddle look pretty similar at a glance. Technical sex talk. What’s a mons verenis? Do I have one? Continuity issues. We see a major bomb attack in the prologue, hear Brent mention that one hundred people died in an attack the year before, but when Ann Jenkins requests more manpower for her division, she’s turned down because no major terrorist attack has occurred since 9/11. Do one hundred New Yorkers getting blown up in the subway count as a terrorist attack, or did the NYPD write it off as a mugging gone wrong?

Did I like this story? Hell yeah! Would I read it again? Yes. Would I recommend it to people who like thrillers? Of course. My rating? As a thriller, five stars out of five. As a novel . . . five stars. Looks like I found my first perfect ten.

--Liz Ellor, O43

You can purchase Armageddon Conspiracy here