A pacy thriller filled with clichés that fizzles out right at the end

THERE EXISTS a certain category of books best picked at an airport or a railway station right after the plane or train is delayed. The category can be divided into two subs— breezy romances and pacy thrillers, page-turners that stay in the collective memory for 15 minutes (or less). The Devil Colony snugly fits in the last sub-category. If you have seen a few Indiana Jones movies or read through your Dan Browns, then you could possibly predict most of its “unpredictable” twists. Fortunately, the book is an honest one: it does not claim to change lives. It is just an entertaining read. And, James Rollins is a well-behaved author to let his readers know fact from fiction in a short summary at the end. For lovers of conspiracy theories, this one is not about the Illuminati or Freemasons— words that have started to lead to involuntary groans. This one is all about nano-technology and Native American heritage and The Devil Colony scores when it comes to threading two disparate pieces of history together. Rollin’s seventh book in the Sigma Series goes thus: a secret from the past rises which threatens to destroy the world. Yes, you have probably heard this one before. Unlike a Dan Brown, this book does not start in Europe but in Rocky Mountains, Utah. The book earns some brownie points for its descriptions of US caves and parks—the author is an amateur spelunker after all. The story starts with the discovery of a cavern full of desiccated human bodies and a gold-coated skull of a saber-toothed tiger. When the prehistoric artifact is brought to the surface, it triggers a blast that creates a force that dissolves the rock, eventually unleashing a volcano. When members of a special forces unit Sigma, led by half native-American and half-white Painter Crowe, investigate, they uncover a conspiracy that has roots in Mormonism, Native American legends, Thomas Jefferson and explorer Meriwether Lewis. A part of a seven-books series, this book holds itself well as a standalone thriller. The writing is deliberately dramatic drowning in Hollywood-style bravado. Characters—the way they walk, talk or think—are described in unnecessary detail. Especially bits dedicated to Siechan—a Manga ‘chick’ meets Quentin Tarantino’s killer ‘babe’. Having said that, next time when you are stranded at an airport with nothing to read, The Devil Colony might be a pick. Time will fly and by the time you reach your destination, you will have forgotten all about it.