~ About the Book ~
The research team abandons the lab on the Florida coast and flees to a mountain refuge in Italy. The battles in Charlie’s mind are overtaken by real life attacks. He must grapple with the daunting realization that a conspiracy is taking hold on both internal and external levels. Can Gabriella be trusted, or is she just part of the scheme?
Leave behind your assumptions about the way the world works, and race along the unknown corridors of human consciousness in Fault Lines.
Genre: Speculative/Technothriller
Release date: 1 August 2017
Pages: 402
Publisher: Revell Books
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~ Excerpt ~
Gabriella directed Charlie into the west-facing chamber. She asked him to slip off his shoes and lie own on a narrow hospital bed. The room contained the one bed, a chair, and a portable table jammed with electronic gear. The windows facing the lobby were one-way glass. Charlie stared at the mirrors and disliked how the eight other people could observe him unseen.
[…]
She had substituted a white lab coat for her dark jacket. Her hair was bundled so tightly it accentuated the astonishing curve to her eyes. Charlie knew he shouldn’t use her closeness to stare. But every time he looked away, his eyes were dragged back.
Her voice maintained its gentle tone, probably to help him relax. But the result was an intimacy that not even all the unseen observers could break. “The parameters go far beyond you directly, Charlie Hazard. That is one reason why I do not want to explain. This is all very new to us as well, you see. Can you open your shirt, please?”
The belt across his waist made the motions clumsy. “Are you a scientist?”
“My background is in experimental psychology. Before this, I only worked with rats. Some days I wish I had never . . .” She stopped in the process of peeling the back off a monitor pad and stared at the scar tissue lacing his chest and upper abdomen.
“It’s okay.”
She used a square of sandpaper to lightly abrade the skin of his chest, applied the pad, then connected it to another thin wire. “I’m sorry. What was I saying?”
“Your research is very new.”
“Actually, we have been working at this project for almost two years now. It is the results that are new.” She checked the monitor pads and wires with professional swiftness, then lifted a syringe. “I want to give you something that will aid you in resting fully.”
“Will you tell me what’s in your injection.”
She had clearly expected the question. “I have written down the solution.” She showed him a folded sheet of paper. “I would like to ask you to please let me put this in your pocket, and that you not read what I have written here until we are done. Will you do that for me, please?”
“Yes. All right.”
She slipped the paper into his shirt, then applied a tourniquet to his right arm. She lifted the syringe and spouted a little stream toward the ceiling. Then she stopped and looked at him.
All the looks she had given him before were now rolled into one tight bundle. That was how it felt to Charlie. She stared at him with an intensity that he felt in his bones.
She whispered, “Thank you for trusting me, Charlie Hazard.”
“It was a slow night until you showed up.”
She inserted the syringe and pressed the plunger.
~ Review ~
This book was like a battle of wits on steroids—and by steroids, I mean a combination of spec ops and quantum physics! But don’t worry if quantum physics isn’t your thing. There’s nothing the average person (like me!) can’t understand in this story. All you need to know is that Dr. Gabriella Speciale has discovered a way to separate human sensory awareness from the body by combining and varying different pitch frequencies, allowing a person to be transported through time and space. Simple, huh?! But truly, if I can follow it, you can follow it.
Although this is the third full length novel to be released in this series, chronologically, this book takes place before Trial Run and Flash Point. If you have read the novella Double Edge that released way back in 2015, you will recognise the opening chapters in Fault Lines (and now that I’ve told you, you won’t be sitting there wondering why it seems vaguely familiar, like I was!) Fault Lines gives us the full story of how Charlie Hazard came to be involved with Gabriella’s team, and even the story of why Reese Clawson is determined to obliterate Gabriella’s entire group. And it’s intense!
I’m not going to say anything about the plot. That would be totally spoiling it. But I will say that I love the character of Charlie Hazard. And I promise it’s not because we’re told his late wife described him as ‘an old soul trapped in an underwear model’s body’! (Although you won’t hear me complaining, either!) But Charlie is quietly intense, loyal, and honourable. He has some totally mad skills, thanks to his time as an Army Ranger and training covert operatives on field techniques, and when it comes to a battle of wits, Vizzini would lose before he arrived, and even the Man in Black wouldn’t know what hit him!
The icing on the cake is Thomas Locke’s writing. I find myself highlighting passages simply because of the delicious way he phrases things. It’s what first drew me to his writing, and the main reason why I picked up the first book in this series, despite it being so far out of my usual reading genre.
Just one thing. Please tell me there is another one coming—to continue the story after Flash Point! *bats eyelashes*
I received a copy of this book from the publisher. This has not influenced the content of my review, which is my honest and unbiased opinion.
~ Other Books in Series ~
* Although Fault Lines has been published as #3 in the series, chronologically, it takes place prior to Trial Run.
~ About the Author ~
Thomas Locke is an award-winning novelist with total world-wide sales of seven million copies.
His work has been published in twenty languages, and critical acclaim includes four Christy Awards for excellence in fiction and his 2014 induction into the Christy Hall of Fame.
Thomas divides his time between Florida and England, where he serves as Writer In Residence at Regent’s Park College, the University of Oxford. He holds a lifelong passion for epic fantasy, science fiction and techno-thriller stories.
Thomas’s screenplay adaption of Emissary is under development as a feature film with a British production company.
Connect with Thomas: Website // Facebook // Twitter // Pinterest // Goodreads
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