Bloodline

Tropical storm Isaac gave me the perfect excuse to hunker down and devour James Rollins' latest Sigma Force thriller Bloodline (#217).  I hardly came up for breath until I had finished it.

The president's daughter has been kidnapped, and Sigma force has been assigned the task of retrieving her alive.  That sounds pretty straightforward, but in true Rollins fashion, twists abound and both the victim and the entire team face situations where logic tells you that they can't possibly survive.  The scientific twist to this plot centers around the search for immortality; through genetic engineering, technology, artificial intelligence or some combination thereof.  And, also as usual, the scariest thing about this book is the plausibility of it happening.  Mr. Rollins provides links to websites and videos which show what progress has already been made towards that goal.

Rollins introduces two new Sigma team members in Bloodline, former Marine Wayne Tucker, highly decorated  Afghan War veteran, and his partner Kane.  Kane is able to provide the team with unique tracking capabilities and intel.  Did I mention that Kane is a highly trained military war dog?  Rollins actually debuts these characters in a short story prequel available on Amazon called Tracker.  If you have the opportunity, I'd highly recommend that you read this first, just because Tucker and Kane are so appealing.

Suffice it to say that Sigma succeeds in its mission, with some minor characters stepping up to fill in some of the gaps, strengthening relationships among the team members, though not without a powerful secret being revealed.  I have a feeling that secret will play a large role in future Sigma Force books, which is a good thing because it means there will be more coming.  Yay!