2.5. I usually love archeological thrillers, but I just didn't connect to any of the characters and the plot just didn't carry me through that. There were twists and turns that were confusing and the payoff just didn't come through as worth it. This just wasn't for me.

I was provided a galley copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

I am not a fan of apocalyptic novels, and I was not familiar with the author ; but for the past two days I have been intrigued and am now thoroughly satisfied with the read.

A strange and fast-moving plague has swept around the world, and two people unlikely people are seeking an ancient, hidden cure supposedly used by Jesus himself. Anna is a former cryptographer for the U.S. military who is currently wanted for possibly being a spy. Martin is a professor of Biblical history. Together and for very different reasons they set out to find the fabled cure. As the world spirals into war, they meet a U.S. special ops officer who has been injured in a mission tied to their search. As they travel across Africa and the Middle East seeking Anna's brilliant and insane mentor who they think holds the cure to the plague, they find themselves in a world straight from Revelations.

The mixture of science and ancient history, mathematics and computer coding is intriguing. Although the characters tend to be stereoptypical, Gear provides a fast-paced and interesting read.

Fast-moving thriller with a premise you've read before: small team of people with special skills must figure out ancient mystery in order to stop a threat. The main differences in Maze Master is that the threat is an apocalyptic plague that is killing millions. While the book is good and races along at a nice clip, the immediacy of the threat is muted somewhat by the author giving only the scantiest details about the viral plague and its worldwide effects. Sometimes I wondered if I was reading the second book in series, so little information was given.

Still, though, it's a worthwhile read for fans of Brown, Collins, etc.

4 stars

What a remarkable novel. It was engrossing and, while technical, the technical aspects made it very interesting. The story is loosely based on a real retrovirus, which made it all the more timely.

In this terrifying thriller, we meet an American woman who is working for the government named Anna Asher, a crazed genomic scientist James Hakari, a brilliant biblical scholar Dr. Martin Nadai and many others. In a race to save humankind, these people work together to find a cure. Anna and Dr. Nadai race around the world into danger and strife in order to find a cure.

While James Hakari is a genius, his ideas are not well accepted and it is known among his circle and his followers that he is crazy. He is called the Maze Master because he leaves a trail of difficult clues to follow. He has always done this. When he used to teach, he left his students scratching their heads and agonizing about how to respond to the test questions that he would give them.

I really like the archeological aspects of the novel. I have always been very interested in archeology. (Indeed, one of my degrees is in Anthropology.)

This book is fascinating. It was extremely well written and plotted. The tension in the story began immediately when the reader realized just what kind of disaster humankind faced. The book is a very fast read. The story flies by as the pages turn faster and faster. Odd enough, although my now deceased mother used to read Kathleen O’Neil Gear’s books, this is my first one. I was very attracted to her brilliant writing style and will most certainly look for more of her books on Amazon.

I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for forwarding a copy of this most brilliant and remarkable book to me for me to read, enjoy and review.