An FBI agent fights to stop a conspiracy to unleash a deadly virus on the world in this propulsive, exhilarating new thriller. The discovery of a deadly virus being smuggled across the border pits FBI Special Agent James Mason and his strike force against an unknown adversary hell-bent on humanity’s destruction. In a desperate effort to contain the pathogen, they launch a predawn raid, only to … predawn raid, only to find that their enemy knows they’re coming…and it’s not about to be taken alive. An explosion rips through the building, killing the majority of Mason’s team, including his partner and mentor.
Tormented by guilt, Mason returns to his home division, but he can’t seem to let go of the tragedy. He remembers seeing something inside the building before it went up in flames, something that convinces him that not only is the virus still out there, it’s merely the first stage of an even more nefarious plan. Obsessed with unraveling the plot, he launches his own investigation and uncovers a shadow organization on the brink of enacting its genocidal agenda, one carried out by a sinister mass murderer who’s been photographed at the epicenter of seemingly every historical pandemic…without appearing to age. An evil man who attempts to derail Mason’s investigation by murdering his wife.
With the help of his longtime friends–Gunnar Backstrom, a corporate espionage gun-for-hire, and Ramses Donovan, a sin merchant of questionable morality–Mason’s hunt for his wife’s killer leads him from a dark union at the dawn of the twentieth century to a network of Nazi collaborators and a conspiracy against mankind more than a hundred years in the making. Fueled by anger and driven by the promise of vengeance, he must overcome a monster preparing to unleash his virulent wrath upon an unsuspecting world if he’s to have any hope of exposing a deep-state entity that’s rooted in every facet of our society, an entity known only as…The Thirteen.
more
This is the first book in this series and for a start of a new series it is good. The characters are a variety of likable and not so much! The stortyline itself is done really good more of a thriller took a bit to read for me but was still very good. the idea of it was believeable and worth seeing were this author takes the series next.
After discovering the disease-ridden corpses of a spate of illegal immigrants, FBI Special Agent James Mason find himself chasing down an unrepentantly evil adversary hellbent on the extermination of billions of human beings. Over the course of his investigation, Mason uncovers an elaborate generations-long conspiracy that has wound through history for more than a hundred years and is responsible for some of the world’s deadliest outbreaks. On the run and unsure of who he can trust, Mason vows to destroy the secret organization responsible for the deaths of so many before they can annihilate mankind.
Although The Extinction Agenda sounds like a blistering thriller in the mold of James Rollins or Jonathan Maberry’s Joe Ledger books, Michael Laurence takes an unexpected and much welcomed approach by casting his paranoid, conspiracy-driven plot as an investigative procedural. Think The X-Files by way of Michael Connelly. It’s a nifty change of pace, but I suspect some readers will find it an unforgivable bit of bait-and-switch. However, I found it to be a refreshing switch from the usual, tried-and-true run-and-gun, non-stop action formula thrillers of this type tend to go for. Instead, The Extinction Agenda relies more on intelligently twisted machinations and a smart conspiracy that slowly unravels over the evolution of Mason’s investigation.
While it’s intelligently crafted and Laurence knows how to build up a wonderful amount of suspense and paranoia, The Extinction Agenda also relies on some notable mystery-thriller cliches. Mason grows into the beleaguered and tortured protagonist that’s oh so common to the genre, leading him to go rogue from the Bureau and defy his superior’s commands, right down to the well-worn trope of getting suspended and turning in his badge and gun. It’s the sort of scene we’ve seen in a thousand cop movies and have read in just as many cop books. Laurence then props Mason up with a few conveniences, like his best boarding school buds who have just so happened to rise to the top of their respective fields and can provide him with all the necessary intel and weaponry he needs to get the job done. While Gunnar and Ramses make for interesting allies, they also make for some easy contrivances to get the disgraced FBI agent access to all the things he’s lost alongside his badge and status. And speaking of status, Mason just so happens to come from moneyed elite — his wife’s family is Big Money in the agricultural business and his father is a potential presidential candidate on the rise. Mason and his ad hoc team all enjoy certain levels of wealth and privilege and, frankly, given today’s political climate it’s a bit difficult for me to get all that invested in a ‘rich white guy fights to save the world’ shtick.
To his credit, Laurence does try to make Mason the underdog and at times it even works thanks to the breadth and depth of the New World Order conspiracy he finds himself embroiled in. The Extinction Agenda works best when we’re learning about the various levels of corruption and evil driving global events behind the scenes and what Mason’s current investigation means for the fate of the world. A good conspiracy is elaborate and complex, operates entirely in the shadows unseen by the world at large, oftentimes with evil intent or perhaps even apocalyptic repercussions, and is chillingly plausible. Well good lord, does Laurence ever deliver on all this in spades! The wider machinations surrounding this procedural bio-thriller are scarily possible and enough to make you paranoid if you’re not already. It’s also a pretty timely thriller given its focus on kidnapping and using illegal Mexican immigrants as a source of human experimentation for science run amok. As foreign children die in American concentration camps run by private for-profit groups that have donated large amounts of money to the current administration or are cycled through state-sponsored kidnapping via government-contracted foster care services linked to members of the current administration, it’s hard to look at Laurence’s connecting of dots and not find some measure of awful plausibility in the overarching conspiracy he presents. It may be improbable, but that certainly doesn’t make it impossible, particularly in light of the current state of the world.
Ultimately, The Extinction Agenda is a rich conspiracy thriller, and although it has its fair share of action throughout its 400 pages, it largely relies more on brains than brawn to win the day.
4 stars
This is an interesting bio-technical thriller. Another reviewer mentioned that this book reminded them of a James Rollins novel. I had that thought, too.
While a little heavy on the conspiracy angle for me, it was still a good read – if a little slow in places. We’ve got illegal aliens, Neo-Nazis, traitorous people and tortured good guys. The bio-technical stuff is well researched and thought out. Kudos for that Mr. Laurence.
This is a well written saga, and I wouldn’t mind taking a look at the next in the series.
I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for forwarding to me a copy of this book for me to read, enjoy and review.
I enjoy conspiracy theories, and the best is when the villain’s crime incorporates reason behind it. Extinction Agenda’s intrigue contains feasible logic, and the players involved are far-reaching. It surprised me a couple of times the size of the syndicate at work, a few of the twists I did not anticipate. James Mason’s quest kept me emotionally involved while the events unfolded around him. The group surrounding him was adept at what they were doing.
Regrettably, the story did suffer from a bit too much bulk. There are so many players involved, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but massive amounts of sidebars and background tales started to weigh the book down for me. I stopped paying attention at times. I prefer a less is more approach, more action, and fewer backstories. I will admit, it took me a great deal of time to get into this story. I contemplated at one point stopping. About midway through the novel, I was gratified by not doing so.
The Extinction Agenda by Michael Lawrence is the first in a series. I enjoyed reading this early copy enough that I will be checking out the next one.
Great Setup. In this book, Laurence does an excellent job of telling a complete tale that winds up setting up a compelling overall mythos. There are a couple of issues that others may criticize more heavily than I will, but I thought that at minimum these issues didn’t really detract from the overall story. In fact, the one most likely to be criticized actually serves as a plausible motivation generally, that Laurence works to great effect in his telling of this tale. Action fans will love the sequences in this book, which can be very inventive.
Overall truly a strong tale, but unfortunately for me the entire series will be compared to another that wrapped up last year and had a very similar premise (and was astounding) – Brett Battles’ PROJECT EDEN series. This particular effort does well in differentiating itself in key ways from that effort, and I look forward to seeing how this series progresses. Very much recommended.
This was an extraordinary book, full of everything that makes a thriller fun for me – conspiracy, bioterrorism, shadow governments, one guy who figures it all out then assembles a team of good bad guys to help him resolve it… It reminded me a little of the Dean Koontz Jane Hawk series – not in any derivative way AT ALL, but because it’s another story in which one good (with just enough street cred to know the right bad guys to help) guy finds himself enmeshed in something huge and scary and world-altering and uses his considerable wiles to save the day. The writing is great – perfectly paced, elegantly plotted and full of characters that leap off the page and grab you by the throat. My only complaint is that it ended – seriously, I could have read another thousand pages without blinking an eye… It ends on a great note – setting up the next book with plenty still on the table but nothing dangling off in a way that felt abrupt or unfinished. There’s a lot more to this story, as hinted both throughout and at the end, and I for one cannot WAIT to see how it plays out!
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my obligation-free review copy.
THE EXTINCTION AGENDS (The Extinctions Agenda #1), by Michael Laurence is a thriller novel that blends in psychological horror, medical and chemical warfare, crimes–both against humanity and personal–along with police procedural. In short, it’s a book that touches upon so many sub-genres that there’s something for virtually everyone here.
“They say the meek shall inherit the earth, but he was convinced it would be the flies.”
My personal favorite was the dash of dark humor.
We begin with an FBI Investigation that touches upon some gruesome, covert operations. Special Agent James Mason manages to survive that encounter, but it is one that will continue to haunt him. When we pick up his life a year later, several different sub-plots are brought up. However, there’s enough of a thin thread weaving throughout them for the reader (and James) to realize that there will be an awful lot of unraveling to do.
“. . . Paranoia is highly underrated. It’s an attribute you generally only hear people ascribe to the living.”
The action takes place between several different locations, and the main plot had enough graphic details to satisfy even horror fans. Laurence does his research to such a degree that the “incidents” in the book feel all too terrifyingly possible. I was able to completely immerse myself in the events, and follow along with the plot (and sub plots) that allowed me to completely suspend any disbelief.
“. . . The key is to find the proper leverage to bend any situation to your will . . . ”
I enjoyed this mix-up of characters. Their individual personalities not only matched their “personal profiles” but they were able to offset each other and compliment the other characters’ strengths. I was particularly drawn to Mason, as the events he’d been through showed him as “flawed”, and vulnerable at times–the sort of person you could honestly relate to.
“. . . the right choice wasn’t always the easy one . . . it was often a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils.”
While THE EXTINCTION AGNDA is the first in a series, I felt that the “conclusion” to this book was solid. Yes, there is enough to leave you anticipating the next book, but the events that I needed “closure” to were appropriately addressed. As a standalone, this novel certainly exists upon it’s own merits.
“. . . Sometimes people have to die so that others can live.
Overall, a strong novel that introduces us to some dynamic characters, and deadly threats all too real in today’s society.
Recommended.
A great thriller from a great writer. If you like Crichton, Rollins, Clancy etc you’ll like this one…
THE EXTINCTION AGENDA by Michael Laurence is a thriller that has been classified as both a medical thriller and a techno-thriller with a conspiracy angle. It is the first book in the Extinction Agenda series and I rated it 3.5 stars rounded up to 4. FBI Special Agent James Mason and a multi-jurisdictional team discover a group experimenting with a virus and launch a night raid. However, the group knows they are coming and many of Mason’s team are killed. Who leaked the raid? What are the full extent of the plans for the virus?
This book is somewhat reminiscent of James Rollins’ and Steve Berry’s books, but lacked some of their originality and character depth and warmth. It has a bit of historical fiction in it that adds to its appeal to me. Additionally, it had multiple conspiracy levels and was very complex with several sub-plots and some very graphic, horrifying scenes.
James Mason was a fascinating character, but I wanted a little more depth and insight. The supporting characters were an odd assortment that enhanced the story line. Additionally, there was enough at stake to keep me engaged throughout the book. The world-building was absolutely fantastic and gave a clear sense of place. While the main mystery and issues were resolved in the book, there are several open threads for future books in the series.
Overall, the plot was absorbing and well-paced. I would recommend it to those that enjoy complex conspiracy-driven thrillers. I look forward to reading the next book in this series.
Page-turning action thriller underpinned by a mystery with plenty of twists.
FBI agent James Mason stumbles upon a century-old conspiracy by the world’s elite to control all wealth and rule over humanity. But first they want to kill about 85% of the world’s population, all the brown and black people who lack skills and have too many babies.
The plot is too convoluted to get into. Suffice it to say that Mason’s wealthy in-laws are involved, along with a descendant of an infamous Nazi army officer who has a hideous facial deformity that’s revealed during the climatic battle between him and Mason. I suspect that Mason’s senator father is also part of the plot and the author is saving that reveal for the sequel.
Will I read the sequel? Probably. All the conspiracy paranoia becomes annoying at times, but I want to know what happens next.
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins for an advanced copy. All opinions expressed are my own.
*REVIEW* .5
The Extinction Agenda is one of those books that I kind of liked, but I kind of didn’t like, too.
What I liked: The premise of this story is relevant and plausible. Bioterrorism is a very real threat. It’s unfortunate but true. The main character, Mason, is both heartbreaking and brave, which makes him realistic to me. I felt sympathy for Mason as he carries on in the wake of tragic events in his life. The anger and trauma he feels serve to further motivate him to find answers. It’s well written and obviously well researched. The story is informative and thought provoking about an important topic.
What I did not like: While I appreciate and respect the author’s knowledge about the topics presented, I got lost and bored trying to read through all of this information. Explanations and descriptions were too detailed and overdone for my taste. The pacing was slow because of this as well. I like more action and drama with this type of book. There are also some seriously gruesome descriptions of viral effects, etc. that I could have done without completely. I’m too squeamish for that. It’s simply a matter of personal preference. While I got bogged down in the information, this style is perfect for so many other readers.
Overall, I’m on the fence about this book. If you want something detail oriented and aren’t squeamish, I definitely recommend. Regardless, The Extinction Agenda is a sort of wake up call about a legitimate threat to society. I’m glad to see a story address something truly important.