Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Book "12.21" by Dustin Thomason

About the Book: For decades, December 21, 2012, has been a touchstone for doomsayers worldwide. It is the date, they claim, when the ancient Maya calendar predicts the world will end. In Los Angeles, two weeks before, all is calm. Dr. Gabriel Stanton takes his usual morning bike ride, drops off the dog with his ex-wife, and heads to the lab where he studies incurable prion diseases for the CDC. His first phone call is from a hospital resident who has an urgent case she thinks he needs to see. Meanwhile, Chel Manu, a Guatemalan American researcher at the Getty Museum, is interrupted by a desperate, unwelcome visitor from the black market antiquities trade who thrusts a duffel bag into her hands. By the end of the day, Stanton, the foremost expert on some of the rarest infections in the world, is grappling with a patient whose every symptom confounds and terrifies him. And Chel, the brightest young star in the field of Maya studies, has possession of an illegal artifact that has miraculously survived the centuries intact: a priceless codex from a lost city of her ancestors. This extraordinary record, written in secret by a royal scribe, seems to hold the answer to her life’s work and to one of history’s great riddles: why the Maya kingdoms vanished overnight. Suddenly it seems that our own civilization might suffer this same fate. With only days remaining until December 21, 2012, Stanton and Chel must join forces before time runs out.

About the Author: Dustin Thomason is an American writer and producer. He is the co-author of the 2004 novel The Rule of Four , and the author of "12.21". Dustin also co-created the 2006 ABC drama The Evidence and has executive produced numerous television series, including Fox's Lie to Me. The Rule of Four reached the top of the New York Times Best Seller list, where it remained for more than six months. The book was a number-one national and international bestseller and has been translated into more than 25 languages. It has sold more than four million copies worldwide, and was the best selling debut novel of the decade. Dustin's second novel, "12.21" was published in more than twenty languages in August, 2012 and was also a New York Times and International bestseller. Dustin attended Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, Virginia, then went on to study anthropology at Harvard University and received his MD and his MBA from Columbia University. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

My Review: This is a very well written piece of fiction. Very dense, this novel brings all the elements to make this book an instant success. A thriller that goes from Los Angeles to the jungles in Guatemala in 10 days. The plot is simple and interesting. Doctor Gabriel Stanton is a specialist in prion diseases and Chel Manu is a star in the field of Maya studies. Dr. Stanton receives a call from a resident in a hospital saying that they have a patient that he needs to see. Problem is that the patient only speaks a language they figure out to be a Mayan dialect, and Chel , as a Guatemalan American and Maya specialist, is called to be the interpreter. She is a researcher at the Getty Museum and she receives an artifact in a bag from a black market agent, that happen to be a book with the story of her ancestors written by a royal scribe. That story ended up being the key to solve the variation of the prion epidemic that start to happen initially in LA, but then starts spreading fast all over the USA.
I recommend this book to the permanent library of all book lovers that wants to be entertained with a story that will hook you from the beginning and you will read it on the edge of your chair. It took me around 12 hours to read the whole book.

This book was written by Dustin Thomason and it was published by  The Dial Press on August of 2012. Amazon.com was kind enough to provide this product for me through their Vine Program for reviewing and I was not requested to provide a positive review. Opinions expressed here are my own.

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