The Book of Fate
By Brad Meltzer
Read by Scott Brick Hachette Audio, (2006)
An Unabridged Recording on 15 CDs or 10 Cassettes
ISBN: 1-59483-545-4 (CDs)
ISBN: 1-59483-543-8 (Cassettes)
Genre: Thriller
Reviewed by Sheldon Ztvordokov - September 26, 2006
What does the future hold for you? For one of the characters in The Book of Fate, the future holds death, in just a matter of minutes! The Book of Fate has bestseller written all over it. At center stage is the Presidential Oval Office, and surrounding it is mad assassins, corruption, Masonic lore, intriguing puzzles, and enough secrets to stock a library. Written by Brad Meltzer, the author of such hits as The Millionaires and The Zero Game, this book offers non-stop action.
As the story begins, Presidential aide Wes Holloway and Ron Boyle are in a car that is attacked. This attack leaves Boyle dead and Holloway horribly disfigured. The story jumps eight years into the future. Holloway is working for now ex-president Manning, and while on a junket he catches a glimpse of the supposedly dead Boyle. This chance encounter sets Holloway off on a quest to uncover the truth about the horrendous events that occurred eight years previously. His quest will take him into the realm of Masonic myth and history and he discovers the breadth of power that the Mason's and Masonic tradition has held over Washington since the days of the founding fathers. Most important, before he can uncover the truth, he must first decipher a two-hundred-year-old code and avoid those that would kill him just to keep certain secrets from coming to light.
Read by Scott Brick, this unabridged audio book will keep you glued to your cassette or cd player as you enter the secretive world of American politics and the numerous mysteries that converge on Washington D.C. This is a fun book to listen to. The story is, unfortunately, on the predictable side. However, where the real fun comes in, is in trying to figure out how Meltzer is going to lead Holloway out of the maze that he has set him in. The book is available in both CD and Cassette editions. As an added bonus the CD version includes an interactive 'game'. The game is not really much more than a guessing game where you are shown pictures of various people and you sort them into 'was a Mason' or 'was not a Mason' categories. If you are wrong, the 'game' tells you the right answer. It also provides some tidbits of Masonic lore. While not much of a 'game' in the sense of modern computer games, it is interesting to see just how many people were Masons.
Full of untold twists and turns, historic details, and challenging problems for Holloway (and the reader) to solve, The Book of Fate is a suspenseful, enthralling and enjoyable book that will delight all of Meltzer's fans.
Related Reviews:
The Millionaires, by Brad Meltzer.
When they discover an abandoned bank account, Charlie and Oliver set out to steal the three million dollars contained therein. After all, they surmise, they'll never get caught. As events transpire, stealing the money turns out to be fairly easy - it is staying alive afterwards that proves tricky.
Shark River, by Randy Wayne White.
Doc Ford, an ex-CIA operative who 'likes the ladies' is up to his old shenanigans when he becomes entangled in a plot to kidnap a diplomat's daughter. While foiling the kidnaping, Ford finds that he has been sucked into a deadly adventure as he runs afoul of a drug cartel.
