Customer Reviews

The Panic Zone (Jack Gannon)

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Gripping and mesmerizing from the very first chapter, Rick Mofina's latest thriller explores a chilling conspiracy that is guaranteed to get your heart pounding.

A car crash in Wyoming, involving a young couple and their baby, sets The Panic Zone into rapid motion. The next day, a reporter in Brazil gets a call to meet an unidentified woman at a cafe; the woman claims to have a news story, and the documents to back it up. The reporter and her photographer friend have no idea what they're walking into, and the resulting chaos sends World Press Alliance reporter Jack Gannon across the globe in search of the truth. But the truth is more shocking than anyone could fathom.

A twisted scientist gathers a secret group of conspirators and puts into action a horrific plot that threatens the very existence of mankind, proving once again that science can be a deadly plaything if it falls into the wrong hands. From human experimentation without consent, to a killer virus constructed from some of the world's deadliest toxins and a unique delivery system that will chill you to the bone, The Panic Zone will keep you turning the pages.

With a storytelling talent comparative to Michael Crichton and Robert Ludlum, Mofina expertly weaves the plot with intricate, terrifying and believable details. The Panic Zone is excellently researched and the clearly defined chapters show alternating points of view as only a master writer could achieve. Another Mofina masterpiece--one I can't recommend enough.

Cheryl Kaye Tardif,
bestselling author of The River
[...].

They say her baby is dead, but she refuses to believe it. His co-workers say he is inexperienced, but he is going to prove them wrong.

Emma Lane has finally achieved complete happiness. She's deeply in love with her husband Joe, and together they have an infant son, Tyler. Joe's been working a lot of hours lately, so when they get some free time, they decide to have a family picnic. But on the way, a car swerves in their lane and their SUV crashes. Emma and Joe are tossed from the vehicle, and Joe is dying. But Emma, through her haze of pain, sees someone take Tyler from the crushed vehicle, where he is strapped in his seat. No one believes Emma that her son is alive, but she is determined to find him.

Jack Gannon needs a break. He is a journalist and his boss is sending him to Rio De Janeiro to investigate a café bombing that took the lives of two of their own. The local police force claim the bombing is tied to a narcotics gang war, but Jack digs deeper and soon finds himself travelling across the globe, not only for the story but for the truth.

An ex-CIA scientist has vanished. But when a middle age man drops dead unexpectedly on a cruise ship with odd causes, top scientists fear their old research is back to haunt them. But, what they do not know is that their old colleague has been performing clinical trials for years now and is about to go public in a big way.

THE PANIC ZONE is a thriller of magnificent proportions. Rick Mofina sets the stage and deftly builds and weaves the stories together until they all merge into one horrifying and plausible explanation that has the reader sitting on the edge of their seat. A top-notch suspense!

In Wyoming a woman is involved in a car accident that claims the lives of her husband and infant, yet she distinctly remembers seeing someone rescue the baby from the car before she passed out. As police and medical personnel repeatedly assure her the baby died, she begins to question if she's going mad... until she receives a mysterious phone call informing her, "Your baby is alive."

A reporter in Brazil receives a phone call from an anonymous source claiming to have documentation on a shocking story with worldwide implications. The reporter agrees to meet the source at a restaurant, but before the information can be exchanged the restaurant is bombed and dozens of people are killed, including the reporter and her source.

An otherwise healthy man dies suddenly while on a cruise in the Caribbean, the manner of his horrific death exhibiting symptoms reminiscent of the ebola virus.

The Panic Zone, the second book from author Rick Mofina to feature investigative reporter Jack Gannon, finds Gannon summoned to Brazil by the World Press Alliance to investigate the bombing. Gannon uncovers a series of seemingly unrelated events that, upon piecing the puzzle together, he realizes are not only related but are part of a conspiracy that has potentially catastrophic consequences for the very existence of mankind.

Mofina has created likable, believable characters, thrown them into a conspiracy with life or death ramifications on a global scale, and lets the thrilling plot unfold over locales as far flung as Wyoming to Morocco to London to the Bahamas. The Panic Zone is rapid-fire, non-stop action that reads like an episode of 24, with Gannon playing the role of Jack Bauer and with stakes every bit as high.

You notice a strange white car following you. Initially, you dismiss it. Maybe you are seeing things. Then you start to receive strange phone calls from a blocked number. The caller doesn't speak, he or she hangs up after a few seconds. Could this mean something? Maybe. You let all of that go to enjoy a picnic with your husband and son. Then tragedy strikes on a day that was supposed to be filled with joy.

And all of that is in just the first chapter of The Panic Zone by Rick Mofina, the second novel in the Jack Gannon series.

Emma Lane of Big Cloud, Wyoming, is left to pick up the pieces after a car accident takes the life of her husband, Joe, and son Tyler. Emma accepts Joe's death, she felt him slip away while holding his hand amidst the pieces of metal and glass. But in her heart, Emma knows she saw someone rescue Tyler. She tells anyone who will listen that Tyler is alive, but Emma's words are dismissed as the ramblings of a grieving mother. To make matters worse, Emma receives another mysterious phone call. This time the caller speaks, "Your baby is alive." Will anybody believe the anguished mother? How will she find Tyler?

Emma's story is just the beginning of this intricate plot. A reporter in Rio de Janeiro gets a tip about a big story. But before reporter Gabriella Rosa and a co-worker can get the story, the tipster, Maria Santo, and the journalists are killed by a bomb. Enter Jack Gannon, a reporter from the New York office. Gannon is dispatched to put together the pieces of the puzzle. Gannon is loathed by his Brazilian counterparts, who feel he isn't experienced enough. Despite the animosity, Gannon is undeterred. Attempts on his life can't stop this determined man. Gannon picks up where Maria Santo left off, investigating a Brazilian law firm, which serves as a front for illegal adoptions, human trafficking, and many other nefarious deeds. Piecing the puzzle together takes Gannon to London, Morocco, the Bahamas and Wyoming. Every step of Gannon's odyssey is filled with danger.

There are so many characters and locations, it was a little hard for me to keep it straight. We have government official Robert Lancer, who is hell bent on capturing rogue, ex-CIA scientist Gretchen Sutsoff. This particular scientist is determined to make the world pay for her pain. How she intends to do that is rather disturbing, you'll just have to read the book to find out, but I can tell you it involves experimenting on human subjects!

Human trafficking, illegal adoptions, and questionable science experiments, any one of those topics alone would make for a good book. At times I was wondering how does this all come together? It felt like reading a full season of 24. The conspiracy at the heart of the novel is extremely complex. In real life, I have a hard time believing it could be pulled off. But as a work of fiction, I enjoyed it. As the final 80 pages ticked away, I was reading at a rapid pace. You pull for Emma and Jack immediately because they are everyday people. They are people you come across on your way to work or the grocery store. Does Emma get Tyler back? Will Jack get the story? Will Gretchen be stopped? Of course I won't answer those questions, but you will quickly get sucked into this story.

Rating: Give it a try


Notes: I received a copy of the novel from Planned Television Arts in exchange for an honest review. For more information on author Rick Mofina visit: [...]

Have you ever seen a mediocre, low-budget, straight-to-video "suspense" film and wondered where the script could have come from? Look no further.

This book was so predictable that the thriller label does not apply. There was not one single twist or surprise in the book. There were, however, some noticeable holes in the plot. Halfway through the book, I really didn't care what happened. Save your time and your money.

This is the second book of Mofina's that I read. While I slightly prefer the first to this one, the book is suspenseful and exciting. Others have outlined the storyline, so I won't repeat it here. I'm always amazed, however, at authors who can write a book that covers multiple geographic locations (and here, we're talking Wyoming, New York, the Bahamas, Morocco, the 'old' Libya, and even California) without making my head explode.

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time to read and I have this book on my Kindle. Because of that, it's not easy to flip back through the pages to remember a character, scene, or incident. That, coupled with the fact that the book held my attention throughout, means I got through it in about a week, which is pretty good for me.

The book flows well, and though there isn't a lot of space devoted to character development (which I like), you do get a sense of who many of these people are and what drives them.

So, five stars for a job well done. I will buy other books from this author, as he knows how to write in a style that holds my interest and attention.

On the Opening page of my amazon account it shows a 5% discount on this book (the panic zone)---shows it as 9.49 not
9.99 as charged in the order..................why????
thank you ms.k ---knut.345@hotmail.com

I really recommend this book and i think its just amazing! Everybody should read it if they want to get entertained and get into the stories of the book

A fast paced thriller from the first page to the last page! I will admit I was drawn to this book based on a simple review on the cover by Dean Koontz, one of my favorite authors. If he liked it, I was bound to! The story begins with a bombing in a Brazilian café, killing an informant and two news media personnel. We are quickly moved to Wyoming, where a woman, her husband and child are involved in a hit and run accident. Her husband dies but she is sure that she has seen someone take her child from the scene. Her belief is so strong that she continues on her own investigation to prove her child is still alive. Jack Gannon is assigned to find out why the café in Brazil was bombed and who was involved. Through the investigations of both these characters we meet a brilliant, rogue scientist who has stolen intelligence from a US biochemical project she was assigned to. Her past and growing madness lead her to develop experiments leading to the ability to control who lives and dies. She will go to any means necessary to succeed, to conceal her experiments and expunge those who get too close to the truth.

This gripping novel takes you from Wyoming to the poverty and ganglands of some of the neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro to a Caribbean cruise that ends in horror. If you love a first rate thriller, spellbinding plot, and multi-dimensional characters that you immediately connect with and cheer for, then I highly recommend THE PANIC ZONE.

From the opening page, the story will captivate you and won't let you put the book down until the very end. Quick paced, strong writing and fascinating backdrops and characters make this complex book an enthralling, suspenseful read.