Storm Cycle: A Novel

Book arrived on time and in excellent condition. Can't wait to read it. Thank you............

I have had one of those reading slumps where you can just not be satisfied by anything - kinda like having a box of chocolate all filled with marzipan! But this book was like a big slice of home made chocolate cake filled with chocolate ganache! I loved it - which is a surprise as I stopped reading Iris a few years ago when some of her Eve books were getting so violent. The book reads like a great movie (think tech inspired Indiana Jones) while the characters have great intensity and lots of interesting side characters. One night read! For fans of Linda Howard and the early Cherry Adair books.

What a family, these collaborations are hitting the mark and very enjoyable. I love the way the characters are presented and the involvment of the plot keeps me interested right to the end.

I love Iris Johansen and I have every one of her books, but I was hesitant to read Storm Cycle. I did not believe that I would enjoy the Egyptian or technical part of the story. However, once I started reading I was intrigued. Rachel is a verystrong female lead and Tavak was an awesome character. Both are incredibly smart, so it is very slim that they would get bored with each other. Rachel's entire focus was on finding a cure for her sister. Her sister has a very rare illness that will eventually kill her and Rachel is determined to help Allie. That is where Jonesy comes in. Jonesy is a very rare computer, actually he is one of the most powerful computers in the world. Average citizens or businesses can donate the extra power in their computers and gaming systems to Jonesy...giving Jonesy the power he needs to work on problems that an average computer can't do on its own. Rachel has Jonesy working on a cure for her sister. The problem is that someone is stealing power from the computer and that someone is John Tavak. Not only is Tavak stealing power from Jonesy, but he also insists that he can help Rachel find the cure for her sister.BUT the cure resides in ancient Egyptian history and the only way he can get the answers Rachel needs is to first help Tavak out of a little bind. Or maybe not so little. The action that follows keeps you turning the page. I was thrilled with the story and absolutely surprised at how enjoyable I found the characters and the story. I would absolutely read one of this mother and son books again.

This is the second book I've read by this mother-son team ("Silent Thunder" is the first)and this time they've really pulled out all the stops. The story is exciting as first the reader meets Pelham who is setting up a rifle and waiting for a woman who runs down a college path. He is very excited to be executing his mission and even wonders if he should shoot some random college kids as well. Next we meet Rachel Kirby and her younger sister, Allie, who suffers from a rare nerve degenerating disease. Rachel runs a supercomputer on campus and has a PhD. She works closely with and trusts her senior assistants Simon and Val. Rachel decides to run to work and Simon joins her and soon as he is ten years younger starts accelerating beyond her. They talk about a drain on their supercomputer of quite a few cycles and how they are tracing it. Suddenly Rachel hears a whistling sound and knows no more. She wakes up in a hospital. She was lucky the bullet shot at her only grazed her temple. Simon comes to the hospital and tells her he has traced the leak to Egypt. They still don't know who hacked into their system but now they know the where. As John Tavak and his assistant Ben Leonard crawl into a tomb to find information on an ancient female doctor called Pesehet someone traps them in a cave in and Ben is seriously injured. Luckily John has his laptop that has a mobile card and he is able to send an email to Rachel telling him he's the one who hacked in and that he can help her in her quest to find a cure for her sister if she'll hurry and help him and his friend get out of the cave-in. How they all scramble to solve a puzzle, find a possible cure for Allie and for other diseases, find out who their true friends and enemies are plus some romance and danger is a fast-moving action adventure. While a bit of this is, of course, fantasy/science fiction, I still found it "real" and a very enjoyable read!