Labyrinth

Very much enjoyed this book. Complex with good development of characters. Whitney's fear of returning to the caves was very poignant. Even the story line of a space rock was plausible.

If it's gripping fast action you like paired with the terror of a dangerous cave exploration, choose Mark Sullivan's Labyrinth, a riveting story which deserves ongoing recommendation. A professional caving family's survival is put to the test when a madman and a band of escaped felons takes them on a caving journey to uncover a dangerous object. Strong psychological profiles keep the action fast-paced.

WOW, that was fun! If you enjoy sheer adventure and a thrill a minute, this book is for you. Great work Mr. Sullivan! Hopefully we can look for Harrison Ford to lead us through the caves in the movie!

The best books immerse their readers in a part of the world they've never experienced before, selecting a special time or place to deliver a powerful story that can resonate with the everyday lives of those they take along. LABYRINTH -- a smashing success by this measure -- takes us on a tour of an almost unimaginably immense cave beneath Kentucky, 200 miles or more from end to end, for a four-day chase that offers a heartfelt message on the strengths we can draw from those we love.Tom Burke and his teenage daughter "Cricket" are the key figures in the Artemis project, experienced "cavers" taking a trip deep into Labyrinth to draw insights on the difficulties that would be involved in mining on the moon. The two are taken hostage, however, by an obsessed physicist, three escaped prisoners (including a depraved strangler) and a guard who have an entirely different motivation for heading into the cave.Amid relentless danger, the travelers traverse ridges, shafts, fissures and mounds of rubble in a task one character compares to mountain climbing underground. There are gusting winds and waterfalls in a world where night and day cease to exist and death literally could await right around the corner.Whitney Burke, Tom's wife and Cricket's mother, leads a rescue team of U.S. marshals and an Indian tracker. Haunted by the death of a colleague in a cave drowning, Whitney must overcome her dread of the underground just as -- wouldn't you know it? --nature poses the threat of another flood. A science crew on the surface provides additional support amid problems of its own.It all plays out like a collage of "Cape Fear," "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Central to the story is a moon rock with almost magical powers to conduct energy -- a potential solution to the world's energy problems. I must say that judged by the standards one would apply to science fiction, the rock is a bit implausible. But it serves as what Hitchcock used to call the "McGuffin," a device designed basically to propel the larger plot. LABYRINTH is a thriller, not SF, and a good one.And if you despair of the occasional tortured metaphor ("the young mother's body collapsed like a marionette severed from its strings" -- "his fingers lashing the air as if he were keying an invisible piano") -- now a hallmark of the Sullivan novel -- do what I've done: refer to them as Sullivanisms and start to look forward to them!For in the end, LABYRINTH is a story about family and three people who never give up on the idea of family, a strength as enduring as a hundred miles of rock.

In 2004 at the University of Tennessee, internationally renowned physicist Dr. MacPherson notices the findings that an assistant Gregor obtains with a moon rock specimen. An elated MacPherson claims the results that show rock 66095 contains strong superconductivity traits as his own. He boasts how he will receive the Novel prize for the work. A stunned Gregor kills the professor. Gregor is convicted of the crime, but not before he hides the rock inside Labyrinth Cave, Kentucky.Three years later NASA hires Tom Burke and his daughter Cricket to escort them into Labyrinth Cave to find the missing rock. His wife Whitney suffers nightmares and though internationally famous refuses to enter the cave where last year her assistant died while she barely escaped.However, Gregor escapes with some fellow prisoners and heads to Labyrinth Cave to collect the rock that will make him rich and famous. He and his associates capture the Burkes and the NASA team inside the cave. Only Whitney can lead a rescue party, but she has not entered any cavern since the nightmare occurred, but the stakes are the two people she loves most.At times LABYRINTH seems more like a Hollywood thriller than a novel, but Mark T. Sullivan cleverly augments the plot with a personal crisis and an incredible underworld panorama. The story line is loaded with action on a global scale and on an individual level as the world is in trouble if Gregor regains the rock while Whitney battles herself. Mr. Sullivan provides a powerful tale that winks at the movie industry, which works fine for this novel.Harriet Klausner