09/02/2013
Barney follows his Thriller Award–finalist debut, 2011’s The Genesis Key, with an engrossing standalone that combines biblical history and modern science. In 1959, while a group of scientists were conducting a secret experiment at an underground lab in Thurmond, W. Va., a serious accident occurred. President Eisenhower ordered the lab sealed and records of its existence expunged. In the present day, the NSA notices activity at the site and calls in assistant security auditor Mike Califano and CIA agent Ana Thorne to investigate. Meanwhile, renegade scientist Benjamin Fulcher, who knew these experiments were designed to unleash the power of the so-called Joshua Stone that enabled the biblical Joshua to perform amazing feats, teams with Russian energy czar Vladamir Krupnov to get there first. The race is on to recover the stone that’s buried beneath the old lab. Barney nicely integrates time-dilation theory into the fast-moving plot. Agent: Mickey Choate, Choate Agency. (Oct.)
THE GENESIS KEY is a solid blend of science, myth, history, and suspense. It’s remarkable and unconventional, which together make for a great tale. There’s an intense brand of storytelling here, utilizing all of the elements I love. I can’t wait for more from James Barney.
[A]n epic thriller - vivid, fast moving, and beautifully imagined. From the opening chapters to the final twist, it pulls the reader along at high speed, combining science, high technology, and ancient Biblical mystery into a fascinating and brilliantly original story. I highly recommend it!
A strong debut thriller. . . . James Barney deftly explores elements of modern science and antiquity to mine the kinds of themes so ably explored by the likes of Dan Brown and James Rollins. . . . Barney is a welcome player in a crowded field.
THE GENESIS KEY is a solid blend of science, myth, history, and suspense. It’s remarkable and unconventional, which together make for a great tale. There’s an intense brand of storytelling here, utilizing all of the elements I love. I can’t wait for more from James Barney.” — Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author of The Jefferson Key and The Templar Legacy
“Barney’s fast-paced debut novel demonstrates his knowledge of ancient history, the bible, and microbiol-ogy, as well as his fertile imagination. ” — Publishers Weekly
“A strong debut thriller. . . . James Barney deftly explores elements of modern science and antiquity to mine the kinds of themes so ably explored by the likes of Dan Brown and James Rollins. . . . Barney is a welcome player in a crowded field.” — John Hart, New York Times bestselling author of The King of Lies, Down River, The Last Child, and Iron Horse
“[A]n epic thriller - vivid, fast moving, and beautifully imagined. From the opening chapters to the final twist, it pulls the reader along at high speed, combining science, high technology, and ancient Biblical mystery into a fascinating and brilliantly original story. I highly recommend it!” — Douglas Preston, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Impact and Blasphemy
“Barney follows his Thriller Award-finalist debut, 2011’s The Genesis Key, with an engrossing standalone that combines biblical history and modern science.” — Publishers Weekly on THE JOSHUA STONE
“Barney commands a large cast of characters […] and sells his premise with conviction.” — Kirkus on THE JOSHUA STONE
2013-10-01
Barney, whose 2011 debut The Genesis Key imagined a historical conspiracy involving the discovery of genes that control longevity, returns with a Bible-based thriller about ancient stones with the power to bend time. In 1959, a secret government experiment supervised by a prominent German scientist in an underground laboratory in West Virginia went terribly wrong. It was such a calamity, the Eisenhower administration did its best to erase any traces of it from history. When, in the present, a strange man with overgrown nails and hair, a heavy German accent and a stomach wound shows up in a town not far from where the feds set up shop, he quickly draws the attention of a waitress who is sure she has seen him before. The man, who calls himself Malachi, goes off in search of a certain church to which someone has directed him via esoteric clues. U.S. government agencies are quickly on his trail--as are cutthroat Russian industrialists in cahoots with a compromised Nobel Prize–winning British physicist. They're eager to cash in on what a government agent refers to as "the antigravity stuff that the Nazis were supposed to be working on at the end of the war." The Nazis were happy to find that pieces of stone, not divine intervention, caused the parting of the Red Sea and allowed the Israelites to escape Egypt--a case of science trumping religion. Barney commands a large cast of characters well enough, and he sells his premise with conviction. But the author is unable to turn the material into compelling reading. If, as one of the scientists in this book puts it, "Einstein himself was confounded by this material," the reader is merely underwhelmed.
