From the Ashes by Jeremy Burns

From the Back Cover:

Graduate students Jonathan and Michael Rickner, sons of eminent archaeologist Sir William Rickner, are no strangers to historical mysteries and archaeological adventures. But when Michael is discovered dead in his Washington, D.C. apartment, Jon refuses to believe the official ruling of suicide. Digging deeper into his brother's work, he discovers that Michael was murdered to keep his dissertation research buried.

Joined by Michael's fiancee Mara Ellison, Jon travels to New York where he uncovers the threads of a deadly Depression-era conspiracy - one entangling the Hoover administration, the Rockefellers, and the rise of Nazi Germany - and the elite cadre of assassins that still guard its unspeakable secret.

The prologue of From the Ashes is gripping. It totally hooked me. Then I was sad when the first chapter took me from Manhattan 1957 to Iraq 2010. The sad didn't last long. The first chapters of this book are intriguing and fast moving. I was settling in for another action filled ride - and, for the most part, that's what I got. The story does get bogged down in the middle for just a bit in order to bring the reader up to date on all the history that is necessary to the conspiracy, but then it picks up and the ride gets back on track.

Jeremy Burns has written a solid action novel with mystery and suspense. I was pleased with the decisions he made with regard to the character development and the plot. There were a few minor editing errors but it wasn't distracting enough for me to quit the book - and I am a bit of an editing snob so that says something.

/5   

Character Development          5

Editing                                      4

Sex                                            0

Violence                                  3

Romance                                 0

Readability/Flow                     4

A Taste from Page 213:

He walked to the closet door, unlocked it, and withdrew a canvas bag from the shelf within. He moved back to his desk, shoved the chair out of the way, and opened the bag on the desktop. He fingers flew as he assembled the weapon from the parts from within the bag. They knew every step by heart, every motion practiced hundreds and thousands of times before. Greer had two true passions: the Division, and shooting. And, for the first time in far to long, he would be able to combine both of those loves in one life-defining moment. Considering the short time he had left on this earth, and considering the gravity of what he was about to do, he couldn't think of a better time to step back into action.