Review: Ghost Country

Ghost Country
Patrick Lee
Science Fiction/Suspense
Travis Chase/Book 2
Harper/December 28, 2010

For decades, inexplicable technology has passed into our world through the top secret anomaly called the Breach. The latest device can punch a hole into the future ...

What Paige Campbell saw when she opened a door into seventy years from now scared the hell out of her. She and her Tangent colleagues brought their terrible discovery to the President - and were met with a hail of automatic gunfire after leaving the White House. Only Paige survived.

Fearing a terrifying personal destiny revealed to him from the other side of the Breach, Travis Chase abandoned Tangent ... and Paige Campbell. Now he must rescue her - because Paige knows tomorrow's world is desperate and dead, a ghost country scattered with the bones of billions. And Doomsday will dawn in just four short months ... unless they can find the answers buried in the ruins to come.

But once they cross the nightmare border into Ghost Country, they might never find their way back ...

INTENSE. Seriously, this book had me at the edge of my seat. As with the first book, The Breach, I knew it would be one hell of a ride. It takes place more than two years after the end of The Breach, with Paige Campbell still working for Tangent and Travis Chase trying to make a new life for himself, again.

Travis is pulled back into the freaky world of Tangent, the secret government agency that studies the objects, or "Entities", that come from The Breach. Paige Campbell is in trouble and needs help and Travis can't say no when it comes to Paige. When Bethany Stewart, a colleague of Paige's, tells Travis what has happened, he jumps right back into hero mode. The thing about Travis is that he is very capable. He was a cop for years, he has the experience to handle difficult, dangerous situations. But what he must deal with is out of his realm of experience. Which is why he is such a fascinating character to read when he encounters the weird and impossible-to-believe Entities that come from The Breach. Yes, he is the main character, the title character of the series, but you still doubt his safety at times which makes the experience that much more intense.

Both Paige and Bethany show equal amounts of brains and survival skills. They are very different in that Paige has far greater experience from her years with Tangent, not only in dealing with the government but her weapons skills are truly wicked. Bethany is the geek of the three and if you ever needed a geek, now is the time. She has mad computer skills but also excels in logic and reasoning when it comes to complex problems.

The action is fierce, intense and intelligent. There is no way good will triumph over evil without the intelligence of these characters. There is fighting, with fists, furniture and guns but there is also thinking, planning and plotting that must happen in order for Travis, Paige and Bethany to succeed. I loved the action but seeing the thought process of these characters added an even greater dynamic to already standout characters.

Patrick Lee has outdone himself with this suspenseful, action packed science fiction novel. Knowing there is only one book left has me wishing this wasn't a trilogy.

Rating: A

Travis Chase Trilogy

The Breach
Ghost Country
Deep Sky