Title: Lost Relic Of The Gods
Author: Jeffrey A. Friedberg
Publisher: Jeffrey A. Friedberg
ISBN: 0615384927
Pages: 421 Paperback & Kindle
Genre: Fiction/Suspense/Thriller
Reviewed by: Gary Sorkin, Pacific Book Review
Book Review
In real life Jeffrey A. Friedberg is one tough, street smart, connected guy; connected to the most powerful secret society holding the undisclosed truth yielding the quintessential power of all civilizations throughout the ages. As such, he has personified his own character into his protagonist, Jack Vane, a private eye with a guttural vocabulary that gets drawn into a “black hole” of intrigue and espionage beyond ordinary imagination in Lost Relic Of The Gods.An ancient relic, a golden globe dating back 5,000 years, about the size of a basketball with etchings describing a science and math more advanced than today’s technology, turns up in the wrong hands and Jack needs to find it. The people with the “need to know” need Jack, so the knowledge about the power and history of this device, this relic, is bestowed upon him. In his discriminating and rather “nobody’s fool” attitude, layered with disbelief, temper, deceit and ulterior motives, the story unfolds. Who are these people?
As explained to Jack, the power stems from, “The. Highest. Level.” (That’s not a typo, but an excerpt!) “This goes higher…than the White House.” Jack learns, “It goes higher than somebody who only gets to be in power four years. These little presidents come and go, but we’ve been around a lot longer. We go a lot deeper. We’re much wider. We began a long time ago, Jack…We’ve held the real power for over 2000 years, Jack. You see, we have … information. We know everything. We know exactly how the world works and who to call. We’re everywhere. After two millennia, you might say we have roots. See, we’re the gentry, the old money. We are the real power. We are the hidden, permanent government of this planet, Jack.”
So Jack didn’t know Jack when it came to the ways beneath the shell of perception this secret society wants the public to believe. Friedberg pulls back full throttle on taking the reader along his skillful visionary indulgence of adventure, getting the reader’s adrenaline pumped as one pages this fast moving novel. The rough language isn’t at all disturbing as it is used so appropriately that you couldn’t imagine Jack saying anything with less impact than his insulting and vulgar remarks. Jack has to save the earth, and we’re not talking the Al Gore way!
Lost Relic Of The Gods will introduce the newcomer to Jack Vane, and instantly sparks the reader to buy the other books of the series. This is a great book to take on a vacation, or making a vacation at home by getting absorbed into Jack’s plight to a destination ever so distant and in your face at the same time. No doubt destined to be adapted for a screenplay and into a ginormous blockbuster on the big screen, Jack Vane will become a household name for story connoisseurs everywhere, and loved by all fans of Jeffrey A. Friedberg.
