Bloodline

September 10, 2012
Rollins' eighth thriller featuring the covert U.S. intelligence agency known as Sigma Force (after The Devil Colony) is of a piece with its predecessorsâit's fast-paced, full of twists, and thick with intrigue. Beginning strong with an engaging preface discussing the shadowy history of the Knights Templar and 21st-century medical breakthroughs with the potential to make immortality possible, Rollins rewinds to the 12th-century recovery of the Bachul Isu, the staff of Jesus Christ. Just a few pages later, Rollins presses fast-forward again to "Five Days from Now," when Commander Gray Pierce of the Sigma Force has U.S. President James T. Gant in the crosshairs of his sniper rifle. The rest of the novel explains how things got to such a pass, starting with the abductionâapparently by piratesâof President Gant's pregnant daughter, Amanda, off the Seychelles. The narrow escapes and betrayals between Amanda's kidnapping and Gant's imminent assassination are unsurprising, but the momentum of the plot will carry along those looking for an exciting escape.