The Doomsday Key

by: James Rollins

Published by: William Morrow

Reviewed by Jeff Foster

Summer is here and Gray Pierce and the special agents of Sigma force are back!

It’s not often that an author can write the fifth in a series of books and have it stand up to the first in series. The Doomsday Key does just that.

James Rollins introduced the Sigma force in Map of Bones, and when I read that book I thought it might be one of the best thrillers I had read in a very long time. Since then Rollins has brought the crew back four more times, each adventure ratcheting up the adrenaline well above the previous edition.

In The Doomsday Key, Rollins uses his extensive research and prose to give the reader a highly detailed recounting of history and weaves that ancient story into contemporary events that makes you wonder if the story was just declassified from some dark government archive.

Sigma force is a shadowy organization working on the fringes of covert operations. Its members are all ex-special forces operatives that have been cross-trained in various elements of the sciences. They form a core group of special agents that work behind the scenes to decipher ancient texts and riddles that I had never heard of–and wonder aloud why.

The pretext of the The Doomsday Key is that in Middle Ages England, a survey was taken to assess the wealth of the English crown. The results were compiled into what became known as the Doomsday Book. In the book there were various entries about areas around the kingdom that were listed as wasted. All people and livestock were dead.

Flash forward to present day and the archenemy organization of Sigma, The Guild, has been found to be plotting a way to resurrect whatever it was that killed those people so long ago and use it to achieve their darkest goals.

As with the previous Sigma novels, Rollins takes you on a country-hopping expedition from a darkened sanctuary at the Vatican to the frozen wilds of Svalbard, Norway where there are no polar bears. Lives hang in the balance. Will the Sigma agents be able to wrest the secrets of The Doomsday Key away from the Guild? Get the book.

Armchair Interviews says: Do you like international thrillers? Yes? Then here you go.

Author’s Web site: http://www.JamesRollins.com