Deception Point by Dan Brown

This was Dan Brown's third book written after Angels & Demons and by all accounts his weakest work. That is to say, I still really enjoyed it, but because his other books were so good, this one didn't quite meet expectation.

Brown tells the story of a ground-breaking discovery made by NASA in the north pole that will go down as one of the most significant in history (he's always aiming high with his plots). A Meteor has been discovered in the ice, but that alone isn't very significant, it's what the meteor contains within its rock that has NASA scrambling to make sure this discovery is legitimate.

Meanwhile, Zachary Herney, The president of the United States is in the middle of an election campaign. This discovery could help him bolster his waning support. Especially since one of the main issues of the current election is weather funding to NASA should be maintained or cut. The President has always been a supporter of the organization, but his opponent, Senator Sedgwick Sexton has been bashing the President and NASA for throwing away billions of dollars on failed projects.

Enter our protagonist Rachel Sexton, a gister for the NRO (she puts things in a nutshell for the White House) and coincidentally, Senator Sexton's estranged daughter. The president sends her to the arctic along with a team of highly qualified specialists including top celebrity oceanographer Michael Tolland to help NASA confirm the authenticity of the meteor. What they end up discovering puts them in a deadly race back to the states to tell the president, but they're being chased by an elite and highly secret government force with orders to eliminate them.

This makes for a fast-paced thrilling story which I did get through in record time. Where it falls a little short though is in Dan Brown's formulaic delivery. The smart and sexy female and the handsome and equally intelligent male protagonists are brought together to perform a task which is not in her job description. They're faced with a crisis in which the odds are incredibly stacked against them (ie being chased by professional killers) and yet manage to escape despite it all.

If you like suspense, action, political stuff and sexiness, Deception Point does deliver. Just not nearly as well as Dan Brown's other books.

***½