Deception Point - Dan Brown

Deception Point
By: Dan Brown
Published: 2001
Audiobook Read by: Richard Poe
My rating: Good

I decided to check out all of Dan's books after listening to Angels and Demons and have been happy with them so far. However, this one just doesn't quite measure up to the others. I enjoyed it but was a little disappointed at the same time

Rachel Sexton is a woman who has tried hard to escape the reality that her father is a bad person. Over the course of her life she had learned that he was not who he claimed to be and had watched him destroy her mother and tear their family apart. Unfortunately, that was all part of his private life. The public face of Senator Sedgewick Sexton was one of sincerity and a desire to serve his country with humility and honesty. His facade of integrity has propelled him to within reach of his ultimate goal: the White House itself.

Senator Sexton has based his campaign on slamming NASA and the current president who supports them. Launching a ruthless tirade against them, citing numerous mistakes and catastrophes, he has found an American public who is ready to back him in doing away with the financially irresponsible space agency. However, when NASA makes a discovery of epic proportions, it seems that all of his ranting against them has sealed his fate and handed the presidency back to the man who has faithfully supported them for the past four years.

But is this discovery all it seems to be? Can it really be as astounding as NASA officials say it is? We follow Rachel and her friends across the Arctic ice to determine just that. As the story unfolds we find out that there is much more than originally was disclosed and suddenly, their lives are all in danger. It's a race against time to try to uncover the truth before the deadly team of commandos can reach them and eliminate them. The action never stops as Rachel and her friends travel from the frozen wastes of the north to the United States and out to sea. In the end, it looks like their efforts to reveal the truth will all be in vain as one by one they are eliminated.

I didn't find this book as enjoyable mainly because it was very predictable. I pretty much knew how it would end by the time I was half way through. Dan kind of dropped the ball in the surprise department here as he openly left out details to cast suspicion on different characters but in doing so made it obvious who was the real culprit. The action and suspense were ruined as he set each scene up in advance with major clues of what was going to happen.

I listened to the audiobook read by Richard Poe and as before I was very pleased with his performance. He does an excellent job of bringing a story to life.

Overall this was not the worst book I've found but it lacked the element of surprise and for me that is very important in a mystery or suspense book. If you're a die hard Dan Brown fan don't hesitate to get it but otherwise I wouldn't worry too much about reading it.