William Morrow
Featuring: Gabriel Mann; Liv Adamsen
400 pages ISBN: 0062038338 EAN: 9780062038333 Kindle: B006O40IWG Hardcover / e-Book Add to Wish List
Following the explosion at the mysterious Citadel near the
small Turkish town of Ruin, 13 people immerged from the
mountain, but only four are still alive. American reporter
Liv Adamsen, world-charity worker Kathryn Mann and one of
the Sancti monks are under guard in an isolated hospital
wing recovering from their injuries, while Kathryn's son,
Gabriel Mann, is in a jail cell. Liv can't recall recent
events or how she got injured, and she is hearing strange
whispers in her head telling her she's "the key." Gabriel,
realizing they are all in danger of being eliminated by
unknown forces for what they saw in the Citadel, escapes
his captors, then helps Liv get away. However, he's not in
time to save his mother, who dies in his arms from a
killer's lethal injection. Gabriel knows he has to follow
Liv to the U.S. to protect her, but someone else is also
after her.
Cardinal Secretary Clementi, the man in charge of handling
the Vatican's finances, is not only plotting to kidnap Liv,
whom he believes is carrying the Sacrament within her, but
he must find a way to replenish the billions of dollars the
Vatican has lost over the past years. His plot to locate
the original Garden of Eden and its riches runs concurrent
with his plan to have Liv abducted and returned to the
Citadel. Only then will things return to normal, for
there's a killing blight in the Citadel orchard that has
spread to the monks, as well as a recent earthquake shaking
up the surrounding area. The fate of the world is at stake,
and Clementi knows time is running out for his schemes to
produce positive results.
As Gabriel and Liv race to stay one step ahead of disaster,
Gabriel discovers that a long-held belief about his life is
a lie. Then a desperate Clementi revises his instructions
from kidnapping Liv to killing her, and the battle ensues
to save not only the world, but Liv's life, for she is the
key to delivering the Sacrament to its original home in
time.
THE KEY is an excellent second entry in the trilogy started
with SANCTUS, which I reviewed last year. Though the ending
is quite satisfying, it leaves plenty of threads for the
final book to pick up and continue to the final conclusion.
Most of the principle characters from the first book are
back in THE KEY, and new ones are just as intriguing. The
action is nonstop and relentless with some heart-stopping
occurrences, and the complex plotting includes several
surprises. I can't wait for the final installment in this
spellbinding trilogy.
She is the most important person in the world. She is The
Key
Journalist Liv Adamsen has escaped from the highly secretive
Citadel at the heart of the ancient city of Ruin and now
lies in isolation, staring at hospital walls as blank as her
memory. Despite her inability to recall her past, something
strange is stirring within her. She feels possessed by a
sensation she can't name and plagued by whispers only she
can hear: "KuShiKaam," the key.
To others the meaning is clear. For a mercenary operating in
the Syrian Desert, a man known only as "the Ghost," Liv may
hold the key to one of history's most powerful secrets. For
the brotherhood of monks in the Citadel — now cursed by a
terrible plague — her return to Turkey may be the only way
to ensure their survival. And for a powerful faction in
Vatican City, her very existence threatens the success of a
desperate plan to save the church from ruin.
At the center of events that defy explanation and hunted by
someone she believes might be trying to kill her, Liv turns
to the only person she can trust — a foundation worker named
Gabriel Mann. Together they must elude capture and journey
to the place where all life began. From New York to Rome to
the deserts of the Middle East, worlds collide in a race to
uncover a revelation dating from the creation of man in this
electrifying follow-up to the international bestseller
SANCTUS.