Editorial Content for Paradox

I have seen PARADOX listed as a technothriller, but I feel this classification is quite limiting. In fact, there are so many genres coursing through the pages here that the novel may be impossible to label or define.

What is evident is the intense research that will allow readers to learn new theories about history, science and the world at large, which will have heads spinning. PARADOX continues the adventures of CBI Agent Frankie Cash and Eagle County Sheriff Jim Colcord, both of whom we met in EXTINCTION. One major difference is the addition of a coauthor (and no, it’s not Lincoln Child). It’s Douglas Preston’s daughter, Aletheia Preston, who refers to herself as a “reformed lawyer” and clearly has gleaned the thriller writing gene from her extremely talented father.

"PARADOX is twisted in all the best ways, and I absolutely loved it. Douglas Preston has found another kindred writing spirit in Aletheia, and I look forward to where they take this series next."

During EXTINCTION, we saw Cash and Colcord take on a foe who never seemed possible in the modern world when a demented scientist recreated Neanderthals who went on a murderous rampage. At the start of PARADOX, we see rallies and protests happening around Colorado and the country both for and against the existence of this long-vanished breed of humans. However, our protagonists cannot trouble themselves with this as a new global conspiracy has landed in their backyard with far wider threats and implications.

It all begins with an act of total sacrilege that drives the rest of the novel like a snowball rolling down a mountain picking up steam along the way. One day, at the Basilica of San Silvestro in Rome, Brother Padraig O’Halloran finds that their most precious archive, which houses the skull of St. John the Baptist, has been desecrated. Someone has cut away the back piece of the skull and absconded with it. But why? Buckle up, because the Prestons are about to take you on a wild ride that is exhilarating in its unbelievability while demonstrating their knack for making everything seem so practical.

In Colorado, Cash and Colcord are dealing with the murder of a citizen who lived off the grid in a cabin in the woods and led a very solitary existence. The body of Willy Grooms was brutalized, and it is more than likely that he was tortured. The autopsy also reveals that communion wafers and sacramental wine were found in his stomach, having been fed to him as part of a bizarre ritual as he was being killed.

This has to be the work of a super-religious or pagan group that was operating on some secret mission that currently remains unknown to Cash and Colcord. The investigation connects Grooms not only to a local banker who has moved around large sums of money on his behalf, but also an odd man named Javier Castillo, who has ties to an organization in San Francisco known as Paradox. Among other things, they are involved in both highly speculative religious matters and UFOs with alien visitations. Brother Padraig also believes that Castillo has the stolen skull piece, and he will do anything to get it back, all at the behest of the Pope.

As Cash and Colcord dig deeper into the investigation, the situation becomes far more bizarre, and at times it feels like reading a Dan Brown story while on psychoactive drugs. Believe me when I say that this is a major compliment as it speaks to the limitless storytelling that the Prestons are capable of producing. More brutal, ritualistic murders take place, even involving a member of the CBI, which makes matters much more personal for our protagonists.

PARADOX is twisted in all the best ways, and I absolutely loved it. Douglas Preston has found another kindred writing spirit in Aletheia, and I look forward to where they take this series next.