The Sixth Extinction
-
- $6.99
-
- $6.99
Publisher Description
Jason Conrad, a man with the wealth of Bill Gates, decides to preserve for posterity the seeds of as many animal and plant species as possible in a vast and remote underground facility, taking the world’s legitimate seed banks and "frozen zoos" to a whole new level. Conrad’s secret doomsday complex, though, is staffed by a combination of environmental experts and mercenaries who will stop at nothing to achieve their once-noble ambitions.
After a fellow police officer is murdered and his award-winning German shepherd disappears, Montreal Sergeant-Detective Irina Drach and her young partner, Sergeant-Detective Hudson, connect the crime with a seed bank raid in Ardingly, England, and the kidnapping of a Triple Crown Thoroughbred named Zarathustra. Soon it becomes apparent that highly organized, ruthless abduction teams are raiding seed banks around the world, as well as scooping up the finest animal specimens from zoos, nature preserves, and the wild. Despite the global implications and ballooning media interest, however, Irina never forgets that her foremost aim is to solve the murder of a friend and fellow officer.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Canadian Freeston's first novel shares many traits with the work of such grand adventure writers as Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard, including flowery, sometimes florid, prose; outsized human figures and animals of heroic proportions; and improbable but entertaining quests. Megalomaniac Jason Conrad uses his incredible wealth to create the Doomsday Complex, a secret repository of the best genes and seeds of the world's animals and plants. Conrad's men kill hundreds in the process of collecting these specimens. Sgt.-Det. Irina Drach and Sgt.-Det. Athol Hudson investigate after Conrad's agents kill Jerome Perron, of the Montreal police K-9 squad, while capturing Perron's dog the ideal German shepherd. The primary action takes place in Canada's boreal forest, where champion racehorse Zarathustra and mighty lion I- rish ni escape from the complex and become key players in the drama. Readers thirsting for old-style adventure in a modern setting may find the match between the dogged Drach and the ruthless Conrad a satisfying read.
