‘Ice Limit’ packs scary good fun

‘Mercy’ compelling medical tale

By Jeff Ayers

eyond the Ice Limit’ (Grand Central Publishing), by Preston & Child

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s latest Gideon Crew thriller is a sequel to “The Ice Limit”. At the end of that novel’s ambiguous ending, a ship was torn apart, a meteorite was submerged in the ocean and hints of doom were raised. Now it’s up to a new vessel to visit the wreckage and assess the damage in “Beyond the Ice Limit”.

Gideon Crew has little time left to live due to his medical condition, and when he learns the truth behind his recruitment by Eli Glinn, he’s a bit surprised and terrified. Glinn was one of the original members of the meteorite retrieval team, and he feels responsible for the sheer number of deaths since he let things go beyond the point of no return. He tells Crew the meteorite that was recovered was an organism, and when it sank, it planted itself like a seed at the bottom of the ocean floor. It continues to grow, and if it’s not destroyed soon, the entire planet could rupture.

Glinn wants Crew to utilize his expertise with engineering and nuclear weapons to visit the site and kill the organism. When the new team members arrive at the location of the meteorite, they’re both shocked and horrified by what they discover. Their worst fears are mild compared with the truth.

Elements

Preston & Child take all of the various elements from classic horror and sci-fi films and novels and spin them together to write what begins as an action adventure, but soon delves into paranoid terror. Readers who enjoyed “The Ice Limit” will love this followup, and those unfamiliar with the original novel will have no problem with

2004 to celebrate the seminal figures in rap, but it stopped in 2010. Among those honored over the years are 2Pac, RunDMC, this story or the situations.

“Beyond the Ice Limit” is a lot of scary good fun.

“Mercy” (St Martin’s Press,) by Daniel Palmer and Michael Palmer

Michael Palmer’s son, Daniel, continues his father’s tradition of telling a compelling medical tale while also forcing the reader to question a difficult ethical issue — this time the right-to-life and doctor-assisted suicide — with “Mercy”.

Dr Julie Devereux has been advocating changing the laws to give patients the right to die with dignity, but finds someone close to her suddenly facing that very decision. Her fiancee is paralyzed in a horrible accident and begins to contemplate whether he truly has a life anymore. He makes a decision, but appears to die shortly afterward from an undetected heart defect. The circumstances are suspicious enough that Julie becomes a prime suspect in his death.

Julie continues to dig to prove that he didn’t want to die, and it wasn’t at her hand. As she begins to investigate, she learns of other cases where the victim with a possible right-to-life issue died under mysterious circumstances. Were the deaths natural or is there something more sinister at work? Is killing someone OK when it’s done out of mercy?

Julie begins to question everything, including her own beliefs, as she battles to stay alive against a ruthless enemy who murders not for gain, but to relieve suffering.

Daniel Palmer has a gift for writing compelling thrillers involving realistic characters. His father’s legacy is in great hands.

“Blood Flag: a Paul Madriani Novel” (William Morrow), by Steve Martini

“Blood Flag”, the latest Steve Martini legal thriller featuring attorney Paul Madriani and his partner, Harry Hinds, starts with what seems to be a simple case, but soon escalates into a scenario with international ramifications.

Emma Brauer’s father, Robert Bauer, was 89 and in ill health. The police believe she killed him to ease his suffering — and also insure she wasn’t removed from his will. Emma denies all the accusations, and hopes Madriani can prove her innocence.

Madriani asks Sofia, his new legal assistant, to look into a mysterious package consisting of a slip of paper and a key that was left at Robert’s house shortly before he died. He waits on Monday morning for her to come into the office with her report, but she doesn’t arrive. He then gets the call that Sofia’s body has been found near Robert’s house.

The package has ties to the time when Robert was in the military. At the end of World War II, Robert and his team were stationed in Munich. Madriani figures out members of the unit have all died under odd circumstances, and it might be due to the search for a “Blood Flag”, a Nazi flag used by Hitler.

Martini knows how to craft suspenseful and twist-filled legal thrillers, and Paul Madriani is a modern-day Perry Mason with his pursuit of the truth.

However, it’s baffling why Martini feels that escalating the stakes to almost absurd levels with worldshattering consequences is necessary since the tight and personal stories are so juicy. That aside, this is still one of the better mysteries in the Madriani series. (AP)

LOS ANGELES:

Before Elijah Wood starred as Frodo Baggins in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, he was a child actor