Ghost Dancer

by: John Case

Published by: Ballantine

Reviewed by Kathy Perschman, Chanhassen (MN) Librarian

John Case has produced a true edge-of-your-seat, nail-biting thriller about Nikola Tesla,electro-magnetic pulses, and revenge.

Jack Wilson, a brilliant mathematician, invents a new battery that lasts almost indefinitely--and the government under the Invention Secrecy Act, seizes his invention. He is arrested for trying to get funding to produce the battery out of the U.S., and he is sent to jail. Tricked into saying on tape that he is mad enough to kill the prosecutor, he is then to prison. When he gets out, he emerges a different man--a madman set on revenge.

Wilson gets funding by working with Islamic terrorists and drug smuggling, and then gets involved with Russians smuggling arms into Africa. Now he is set: he has his funds. He leaves a vague trail, one that is tracked by Michael Burke, an attorney in Ireland who has set up one of his secret bank accounts. Burke has nothing to lose, his beloved wife has died suddenly, and he is hanging on working with his father-in-law's firm just until he gets over his grief.

The Americans close the law firm, saying they were aiding terrorists. Burke decides to personally track down the man who called himself "Frank D'Anconia," as the intelligence services seem unable to do it, in order to set the record straight and let the law firm re-open.

Armchair Interviews says: Ghost Dancer will keep you guessing right up to the incredible, ironic twist