Review of The Lost Island: A Gideon Crew Novel

Review of The Lost Island: A Gideon Crew Novel

By: Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

         This is the third book in a companion series about a brilliant scientist and master thief, Gideon Crew, a man who is living on borrowed time.  Gideon has been sent on a mission to steal a page from the infamous book of Kells by his employer Eli Glinn.  But this page is more than it appears: it has a map made by the Ancient Greeks on the back that leads to a treasure, a special plant that heals any wound.  Accompanying Gideon is Amy, a linguist of classical languages, to find the treasure. Amy is determined for this mission to succeed and does not trust Glinn even when their lives are in jeopardy.  A simple easy quest, right?  Wrong, Gideon and Amy run into other treasure hunters that try to kill them, almost drowning, natives who engage in cannibalism and human sacrifice, and a strange beastly creature that is the last of his kind.

           The Lost Island is a fun entertaining read with bits of King Kong, The Odyssey, and in the style of The National Treasure movies and Dan Brown’s novels.  The pacing of novel was done really well.  This is a quest story, so the fast pacing of it is perfect to get the reader excited and feel the tension of the story.  Despite it being entertaining and fun, the story is a bit cliché in its plot and characters.  You have the deceitful employer that believes his intentions are good, but it causes too much harm to innocents.  The protagonist is the typical adventurer that is morally gray, and is a bit cocky.  There is also the assistant that at first does not question his boss, but realizes almost too late his boss has risky intentions.  Finally, you have the passionate and compassionate female partner that tries to resist the sexy male protagonist.  During the second half of the novel Gideon Crew’s character gets side-lined in plot in favor of the bizarre discovery that Gideon and Amy find.  The reader gets a little background on Amy, which is mildly interesting, but typical of a character like her.  The link to the Odyssey is fascinating and fun to figure out.  The twist in second half of the story is somewhat interesting, but is reminisce of the movie King Kong.  The mixture of mythology is different from the usual stories that mix history with fiction as it looks at Greek mythology pretending that is based off of truth, but follows a similar style of novels like Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons.  It is worth a read if you are not bothered by the clichés of the plot and just want an entertaining read. I give this book a C+ rating.