Customer Reviews

Secret of the Seventh Son

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Liked:

I bought this book because I love police procedurals, and I thought this book would be a prime example of that. Wow! I got that and more.

This was a serial killer mystery with a historical element that will make you really think.

The writing was excellent, drawing scenes in the reader's mind with ease. The switching among the three time frames was done effortlessly and seamlessly in a manner that kept the reader enthralled rather than confused.

Disliked:

This is hard to say without giving spoilers, so I will just state that there were a couple of avenues that the author could have explored and didn't.

Overall:

A tremendous thriller with a solution that will have you pondering things long after you put it down.

Rating: R for language, violence, and rape

[This review is based on an Advanced Reading Copy]

I received an advanced copy of this title a few months before release and after reading the back teaser and seeing the cover art I was very intriqued. While the story was interesting the book didn't leave much of an impression with me. Here are my thoughts;

Pros

+ Original premise (basically a line of idiot savants pen a library of the entire birth/death history of the world's population).

+ Story is a great idea with a ton of "what if" scenarios. Unfortunately few are really explored and only center around the main characters who are hardly influential or memorable.

+ Great cover art and engaging back description

Cons

- Story becomes disjointed very early on due to it taking place in the past and present. While it was not difficult to follow it really was difficult to care how the two stories were tied together. The author also spends a lot of time introducing characters only to have them killed off at the end of short chapters. None of the victims are relevant to the overall story but the author attempts to make you feel they are.

- Horrible editing. As the author's first novel I felt like there was no editor involved at all to help ensure a coherant story was being told.

- The Secret of the Seveth Son title is never really explored and was explained very briefly. Library of the Dead (which is the title outside the U.S.) was a much better choice.

- The use of Area 51 as part of the story makes it feel rather contrived and hokey.

Don't get me wrong the book wasn't bad by any means but it definitely wasn't groundbreaking. For those saying "Move Over Dan Brown" I can tell you right now Dan Brown can stay right where he's at. This book pales in comparison to anything Brown has written. While I don't consider Brown's work literary masterpieces, they're much more well thought out and researched than this title. I know the author's follow up called "Book of Souls" is on the way and I'll more than likely read it. However I'm hoping Cooper's second title is more interesting and better edited than his first.

The Doomsday Killer, as he is nicknamed, has claimed six deaths in just two weeks. The people of New York City are terrified and the police are mystified. The victims appear to have nothing in common, and the only thing that appears to connect them is a postcard sent to each victim announcing the date of their death. The FBI assigns the case to Will Piper, once amongst their best agents but now marking time until retirement.

At the heart of this novel is a secret which has been closely guarded for centuries. Meticulous records, contained in an underground library on the Isle of Wight in the 1940s have deadly consequences. Although the records have been moved to the USA, and are continually being analysed in a secure facility, they still hold their power.
There are some neat (and not so neat) twists in this story. The various points of view that tell the story jar at times but overall it is an effective mechanism to tell those parts of the story that span the centuries. The4 shifts in time and between locations are clearly marked.

To enjoy this book, I think you need to suspend a few rational beliefs and get caught up in the page-turning journey. Even though I worked out the answers before the end, there was enough going on in the life of the characters to keep my interest.

Please note: this novel is marketed as 'Library of the Dead' in Europe and Australia

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Excellent Book. I had the misfortune of reading it after Book of Souls, so a little of the drama was gone while reading this book. Otherwise it was a very enjoyable read. You have to read this one before Book of Souls.

I read an advanced copy of this book, which I received at the 2009 Thrillerfest in NYC, and I have to say of all the books I received or bought there, this was the most intriguing. I was very impressed, to say the least. Cooper has a great gift for plotting, and for characterization, but the heart of this thriller is its concept, a blending of the classic 'hunt-for-a-serial-killer' story with the 'secret-conspiracy' tale presented in a wholly original way.

It's hard nowadays to develop any kind of unique serial-killer concept, but without spoiling the plot, The Secret of the Seventh Son has done it, near-perfectly (if you buy into the quasi-mystical-biblical solution). Unlike other reviewers, I had no problem with the 'time-jumping' in the narrative because it was clear from the beginning that the jaunts back to the 8th - 12th centuries were vital to solving the mystery and explaining how all these unrelated people were being killed in such different ways.

Everything else in this novel was delicious gravy - the descriptions of Area 51's inner workings, the thrill of Vegas card-counting, the all-too familiar details of a struggling screenwriter, a romantic twist and a rather unlikable protagonist who manages a bold transformation... and even the way Cooper worked in the actuarial mechanics of life insurance and made it a huge revelation fitting with the plot, worked well for me. My only regret is that the publishers didn't keep the original title of 'The Library of the Dead', which was so much more fitting. If you like Rollins, Preston/Child and the like, don't miss this one.

I enjoyed this book very much. I don't know why Glenn Cooper is hardly known when all three of his books have been on Italy's and the UK Best Sellers list.

If like me you are a fan of the finely told tale get ready to be transfixed. I got this a little early in the Harper Collins Canada title "Library of the Dead" because I couldn't wait after talking to someone who read it in Europe.

Glenn Cooper finds just the right tone as he weaves serial murder with urban legend, predestination, and a little history. Wade in. A cannier roller coaster ride, this book will exert its forces on you until the final page. Exhibiting an equally deft touch with obsessed FBI profilers, fascinating historical figures, and the seamy underbelly of Las Vegas, Secret of the Seventh Son delivers. TB -Boston

This is one of those books that makes you wonder....what if? Nice beginning, good transition, and intriguing finish. The ending is not so original, hiding a second copy of the information just in case he gets "knocked off," but still a good, strong finish. You figure out what is happening around the middle of the book but the chase scenes are excellent. Also, the mental imagery conjured up by the description of the "writers," the library, and Area 51 are very good. The practice of brining young women to the writers is somewhat horrific but it does add to the horror/wonderment/intrigue of the story line. The ultimate demise of the writers was excellent, I never saw that coming. And the true meaning of BTH was hidden until the very end but also gives you pause. Overall I liked this book. This is not a fast read, chapters are a bit long, but it is a very good read. It's a great book to relax with at the pool or beach. I am looking forward to reading Glenn Cooper's Book Of Souls but next up....The Sacred Cipher.

If you think you've had an interesting life, consider Glenn Cooper. He studied archaeology at Harvard, became a physician, specialized in the treatment of infectious diseases, worked as a researcher, became the CEO of a biotechnology company, runs an independent film production company, and has written several screenplays. On top of all this, he is also an extremely inventive and entertaining writer, as SECRET OF THE SEVENTH SON, his debut novel, demonstrates.

SECRET OF THE SEVENTH SON is an intelligent thriller with down-to-earth, realistic characters populating a story that you won't be able to put down for even a minute. The book spans over 1,300 years of history, but is set primarily in the here and now around an FBI agent named Will Piper. A legendary profiler who has solved more than his share of serial killer cases, Piper is burned out and seemingly incapable of a relationship with anyone who isn't named Johnny Walker Black. He receives an unwanted shot at redemption when nine different individuals die after receiving anonymous postcards that seem to predict the date of their death, and correctly so.

Piper, reluctantly joining Nancy Lipinski, his equally reluctant partner, begins an investigation that attempts to find a nexus among the seemingly unrelated victims in the hope that a trail can be followed back to an apparently omnipresent murderer. Just as Piper and Lipinski pursue a lead that seems to go back to Piper's own past, however, they are pulled off of the case. Their investigation, it turns out, threatens to reveal a secret that has been hidden for over a millennium and meticulously researched since the end of World War II at a secretive facility in a part of Nevada known to the rest of the world as Area 51, with the joint cooperation of the United States and Great Britain.

It's not what you think, and the concept is relatively simple, involving nothing more than information. But what information it is. Piper, unwilling to stand down on his investigation, goes rogue, making a cross country journey to a confrontation with the past. Pursued by his own agency, as well as a secretive group charged with preserving one of the most important secrets in history, Piper is determined to discover the cause of the deaths of nine people and bring the perpetrator to judgment. His conundrum is that if he uncovers the secret, he cannot be permitted to live.

SECRET OF THE SEVENTH SON may be a little unsettling to some readers at first, as the narration, like Vonnegut's Billy Pilgrim, jumps from time to time to time. Hang in with Cooper, however; there is a method to his madness, as well as mystery, adventure and everything else we love in a thriller novel. And he knows precisely what he's doing. Fans of Dan Brown and Steve Berry will find much to love here, even though it's very different from books written by those gentlemen. And, as a bonus, there's a generous excerpt from Cooper's next novel included here.

Ultimately, however, SECRET OF THE SEVENTH SON is, above all else, a haunting work: once you've finished the last page, I guarantee you will be asking yourself what you would do if you had the secret in your possession. It's the type of question --- and story --- that can, and will, keep you up all night.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Secret of the Seventh Son draws you in from the first page and doesn't let go until the last. While I admit to having laid to rest in permanent hibernation many "must read" books referred by friends, I literally read this 400 page book in one sitting - a cross-country flight. I found myself hoping that my layover in Dallas would be long enough to allow me to finish it before the flight home ended. If you liked Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code, you will love this book. Not only have the characters been written with texture, depth and faults, Glenn Cooper's "edge of your seat" tale will have you holding on to the closest fixed object through its surprise twists and turns. I highly recommend it.

D.G., Los Angeles