Beyond the Ice Limit By Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child (Gideon Crew #4)

Beyond The Ice Limit is the latest installment in the Gideon Crew series by the prolific author duo Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. It is also their latest book written to date.

I think the main reason I got excited for this book (well, except for the obvious, that it IS written by two of my most favorite authors ever) is the fact that it is also a sequel to The Ice Limit, a novel that the authors have written some 15 years ago as a standalone. So many readers have asked for a sequel, wanted to know just what happened with Eli Glinn and what exactly happened to that which is at the bottom of the Ice Limit? There were too many unanswered questions, too much enigma and mystery left behind, and us mystery readers love puzzles that can be solved.

And let’s just say that Beyond The Ice Limit tied all the lose ends nicely, giving us all poor souls waiting for 16 long years that much needed closure.

The book is also a sequel to the Gideon Crew series, so you will find Gideon at the center of attention throughout. However having read this book, I must say that one doesn’t necessarily need to read The Ice Limit or any of the previous Gideon Crew books to get this one. It really can be read as a standalone. However, if you have read The Ice Limit before or you are a Gideon Crew fan, well, this latest novel will be doubly enjoyable.

If you don’t care to read The Ice Limit, here is a very brief summary. The pretty much heaviest meteorite has been located on an island close to Chile. An extremely wealthy businessman, Palmer Lloyd, wants that rock above all else, and he’s determined to get it to the US.

He funds the expedition and Eli Glinn along with his crew has the job of taking the said meteorite to the US, however, the tanker transporting it sinks two miles down the bottom of the ocean, taking the monster meteorite right down with it. Suffice to say, the book ended in a major cliffhanger and lots of unanswered questions from a lot of frustrated readers (including me).

Now some five years later, a new crew is recruited, among them also Gideon Crew, to travel to the Ice Limit and beyond and do something drastic about that sunk meteorite. Because it turns that the meteorite is no rock from space, but rather something else. Something that must be destroyed at all costs to avoid the extinction of the human life as we know it.

But of course, as in all adventure thrillers of this kind, things don’t quite go as planned. Far from it in fact.

There are lots of twists and turns in the story, and many of them were quite the surprise. But then again it is Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child we are talking about here, the masters of chilling thrillers at times bordering on sci-fi, paranormal and horror, with a good mix of techno-thriller elements in it.

This book was everything I wanted from a sequel to The Ice Limit and much more. The action is non-stop (albeit the book starts a bit slow initially, but it picks up steam quite fast and never lets down anymore), the writing is superb, as usual, and the characters are really well developed. I even shed a tear at some point (and you’ll know exactly when that was when you read the book).

If you are a fan of Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, this book is a must. It has every element that the author duo is known for and will satisfy that itch that persists every time we have to wait for their next book. For now.

Beyond The Ice Limit by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
Series: Gideon Crew #4
Published by Grand Central Publishing
Published 2016
Genres: Thriller
Source: Review Copy
Also by this author: White Fire, Extraction, Blue Labyrinth, Crimson Shore, The Obsidian Chamber, The Lost City of the Monkey God, The Third Gate, The Forgotten Room, Full Wolf Moon