Author: Darcy Fray

Published: February 2014 by Nerd Mob

Category: Crime/Mystery/Thriller, Sci-fi

Twenty-three year old wunderkind professor, Dr. Gordon B. Gray has it all, a Nobel Prize, tenure at Caltech University and looks that make women swoon. Last night he was tossing frozen pumpkins off the library roof and today — well — he’s saving the world.

When twenty-two of Dust, West Virginia’s twenty-three inhabitants disappear into thin air, U.S. Army Lieutenant General John Wilkinson resorts to enlisting the brilliant young professor, who quickly finds himself caught in an international tangle of assassins, truth movements, mad physicists and wild conspiracies. With no clear endgame in sight and the world at stake, Gordon embarks on a perilous journey that takes him from the backwoods trailers of Appalachia, to the desolate wilderness of Siberia’s enigmatic Tunguska region, where one man’s decisions can impact the course of human history.

 

I received a copy of the book in return for an honest review

This is Ms Fray’s debut novel although you wouldn’t know it at all. There’s the extremely involved and intricate story line. Also the premise of the plot is intriguing and the writing flows effectively.

The characters are well on their way to being compelling and memorable. Maybe a little more ‘how and why’ awareness and character development wouldn’t have gone amiss and I would like to know more about the conclusion of events at the underground facility.

Having said that, the story is well researched and overflowing with action, suspense, humour, darkness, torture and murders. The opening paragraph of the first chapter sets the scene and drew me in..

A lone boy shuffled along the desolate dirt road, fueling the billowing dust cloud that nipped at his heels. His thousand-yard stare and gaunt, disheveled frame amplified the word he repeatedly mumbled to none but himself, “Gone…gone…gone.” Nearby, a rusted sign protruded from the overgrown roadside–”Dust, City Limit, Population 23.” Buried deep within West Virginia’s Appalachian backwoods, Dust was the kind of place that went unnoticed for decades at a time.

 

The cloak and dagger intrigue and thrilling science will send your mind into realms hitherto unimagined. I like the structure of the story, the passages going back in time. The protagonist is likeable, if slightly unconventional and eccentric. Although I’m not sure why a Nobel Prize winner in physics would be the last choice to save the world.

I’ll be interested to see where book two takes Gordon. I felt there were a few threads left unresolved which hopefully will be addressed.

As a blogger I’ve been asked to review books by authors I might not otherwise have been aware of. Fortunately for me a good number of those books have been extremely enjoyable and noteworthy. The Officially Unofficial Files of Dr Gordon B Gray falls into that category, also proving the point you should never judge a book by its cover (which wouldn’t actually have drawn me to the book, I have to say) but I’m grateful for the opportunity to read and review the books offered to me.

Darcy Fray is a multifaceted American artist born and bred in the Endless Mountains of Northeastern Pennsylvania. After graduating from high school with salutatorian honors, Darcy went on to earn a bachelor of music from the University of Miami, FL. She currently resides in Los Angeles, where she is the Director of Creativity at iamthinker.com, a multi-disciplinary visual boutique specializing in photography, film & graphic design. The Officially Unofficial Files of Dr. Gordon B. Gray is her first novel.