Deception Point

The time is now and President Zachary Herney is facing a very tough reelection. His opponent, Senator Sedgwick Sexton, is a powerful man with powerful friends and a mission: to reduce NASA's spending and move space exploration into the private sector. He has numerous supporters, including many beyond the businesses who will profit from this because of the embarrassment of 1996, when the Clinton administration was informed by NASA that proof existed of life on other planets. That information turned out to be premature, if not incorrect. (This story is true; I repeat, Dan Brown's research is very, very good.) The embattled president is assured that a rare object buried deep in the Arctic ice will prove to have far-reaching implications on America's space program. The find, however, needs to be verified.

Enter Rachel Sexton, a gister for the National Reconnaissance Office. Gisters reduce complex reports into single-page briefs, and in this case the president needs that confirmation before he broadcasts to the nation, probably ensuring his reelection. It's tricky because Rachel is the daughter of his opponent. Rachel is thrilled to be on the team traveling to the Arctic circle. She is a realist about her father's politics and has little respect for his stand on NASA, but Senator Sexton cannot help but have a problem with her involvement.

Adventure, romance, murder, skullduggery, and nail-biting tension ensue. By the end of Deception Point, the reader will be much better informed about how our space program works and how our politicians react to new information. Bring on the next Dan Brown thriller! --Otto Penzler

Product Description

When a new NASA satellite spots evidence of an astonishingly rare object buried deep in the Arctic ice, the floundering space agency proclaims a much-needed victory...a victory that has profound implications for U.S. space policy and the impending presidential election. With the Oval Office in the balance, the President dispatches White House Intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton to the Milne Ice Shelf to verify the authenticity of the find. Accompanied by a team of experts, including the charismatic academic Michael Tolland, Rachel uncovers the unthinkable: evidence of scientific trickery -- a bold deception that threatens to plunge the world into controversy.

But before Rachel can contact the President, she and Michael are attacked by a deadly team of assassins controlled by a mysterious power broker who will stop at nothing to hide the truth. Fleeing for their lives in an environment as desolate as it is lethal, their only hope for survival is to find out who is behind this masterful ploy. The truth, they will learn, is the most shocking deception of all.

In his most thrilling novel to date, bestselling author Dan Brown transports readers from the ultrasecret National Reconnaissance Office to the towering ice shelves of the Arctic Circle, and back again to the hallways of power inside the West Wing. Heralded for masterfully intermingling science, history, and politics in his critically acclaimed thriller Angels & Demons, Brown has crafted another novel in which nothing is as it seems -- and behind every corner is a stunning surprise. Deception Point is pulse-pounding fiction at its best.

Then a NASA satellite detects a large, high-density rock buried 200 feet below the Milne Ice Shelf on Ellesmere Island, high in the Arctic Circle. NASA scientists determine the rock to be a meteor containing fossils proving that life exists elsewhere in the universe.

To verify the authenticity of the find, the White House sends a team of independent experts to the NASA habisphere, built over the meteor in the Arctic Circle. One of these experts is the intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton, the daughter of Senator Sedgewick Sexton. Senator Sexton is the man running for election against the President of the United States. The plot thickens.

Rachel, while in the Arctic, uncovers what could be scientific trickery - an incredible deception that could cause political and scientific upheaval and cost the President his bid for re-election. When she & her colleagues attempt to investigate further, they are plunged into life threatening danger. To escape assassination they flee for their lives. Their only hope for survival is to discover who is behind this extraordinary plot and expose the truth.

Dan Brown has proven to be one of the top writers in the suspense-thriller genre. The originality of his plots, his amazingly accurate research, and his ability to catch the reader's interest from the get-go and hold it until the last word in the last sentence of the last page, make him an exceptional author. Plus, after completing each of Dan Brown's books, the reader usually comes away from the experience having learned much more than a storyline. I loved "Deception Point" - couldn't put it down. I also highly recommend "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angels and Demons."


A Conspiracy Thriller that really THRILLS!   May 5, 2003
Jeff Edwards (Twin Falls, Idaho)
58 out of 67 found this review helpful

After reading the INCREDIBLE 'Da Vinci Code' and the equally exciting 'Angels & Demons' I figured I couldn't go wrong with 'Deception Point' and I was 100% RIGHT. Dan Brown is fast becoming one of my all-time favorite authors.

After becoming familiar with Brown's religious thrillers, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that 'Deception Point' was entirely different--but JUST as much fun. If you enjoy stories about conspiracies that are as big as they come, this story is definitely for YOU.

Rachel Sexton works for the Intelligence Community compiling information for the President. The odd twist in this story is that we are coming up on election time and the man poised to snatch the White House from under the feet of current President Zach Herney is none other than Rachel's own estranged Father, Senator Sedgewick Sexton. It takes some time to figure out who is indeed the bad guys in this tale--and trust me, you will probably be wrong anyway--but finding out certainly IS a great deal of the fun here. Rachel is contacted by the President and asked to confirm for his current staff the existence of a Meteor found near the Top of the World. Not just ANY Meteor, either. At first Rachel is stunned that the President would be so forward and ask this of the daughter of his biggest rival. Senator Sexton has been THE single largest thorn in the side of NASA because of their chronic overspending and multi-billion dollar failures--screw-up's that have cost the American taxpayers dearly over the years. President Herney has been one of NASA's biggest supporters, much to his own detriment in the polls lately. Rachel actually HAS been chosen specifically because of her relationship to his rival to make this report. President Herney believes that this discovery will come with a great deal of skepticism, even from his own staff. So who better to make this announcement than the daughter of the man who wants to TAKE the White House from President Herney? Rachel agrees under a few stipulations and is off to an Ice Shelf at the North Pole. This sets the stage for the Mother of ALL Conspiracies, and when you find out the source of WHY it was all hatched, and WHO is behind it, the surprise ought to be rather big (at least it was for me).

Is the Meteorite in fact real, and if not, how could NASA have possibly tricked some of the most brilliant scientific minds of the country? Is the President IN on this possible scandal, or is he a pawn of someone infinitely more devious? And what about Senator Sexton? Is he who he says he is? Are his motives clean and pure, or is he just as bad as those attempting to fraud the world? There are some honest-to-goodness twists & turns you can expect in 'Deception Point' and a few genuine surprises along the way. Always fun and actually quite educational about the workings of NASA and it answers the question of why don't we see more privately funded companies winning contracts to launch into space? Get to know Dan Brown, do it today! You will NOT be disappointed. Highly Recommended.


A Great Thriller   April 1, 2003
Harkius (Laramie, WY)
22 out of 24 found this review helpful

Dan Brown can keep you clutching your book, well into the night, despite your better intentions to put it down. If you have to move, you will take the book with you. To the bathroom, to the breakfast table, even to your important meeting the next day.

Quite possibly one of the best of his generation's storytellers, Dan Brown weaves a fascinating tale of betrayal, military force, and scientific intrigue. All of his books are extremely well researched, combining the facts most of us desire with the what-if that most of us fear. A compelling storyteller with his head in the clouds and his feet on the ground, he is one of his generation's best.

This book doesn't fail to produce. I won't spoil the book for you, but trust me when I tell you not to think that you know what is going on until the end and you have put the book down. It is awesome!

A great read, and highly recommended.
Harkius


This is one of the best books I've read   June 14, 2003
tomfromboston
10 out of 10 found this review helpful

It's been quite some time since I've read a book as tight, exciting, and twisty as Deception Point. I think the last author to bowl me over so quickly was Dean Koontz (his early years, not now). This novel has just about everything you need for a stay-up-all-night read and absolutely nothing you don't need. It's very well-paced, and I swear this is one of the hardest books to put down. Until I read his debut novel, Digital Fortress, and was bowled over again by this new author. He just has a knack for getting you hooked right from the start and not weighing you down with a lot of character development until you're ready. And by this I mean he doesn't spend the first 50-100 pages introducing the main players and boring the socks off of you like a lot of authors do now. He gradually unveils each character over the course of the novel, so like in real life, you get to know them over a period of time. Dan Brown reminds me so much of when Koontz used to write like this, but now all his books are all about the character, and the action, plot, and narrative are secondary. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for character development, but I simply can't remember all there is to know about a person when 50 pages are devoted to them back to back. Just doesn't work, at least for me.

So, read the plot outline above, and if sounds like a genre that will appeal to you, give it a go. I will say that Dan Brown can take the most complicated subject matter and boil it down into something completely understandable. And when I look up some of the things he writes about, I find that all his plot devices are based in fact. How refreshing! So when his prologue or author's note says such-and-such are real places and/or devices, believe him. This is one author who does his homework, and the reader is the beneficiary of all this knowledge. You will walk away from his books feeling completely refreshed, not ripped off, and ready to find his next little gem tucked away somewhere on Amazon!


A big surprise to be discovered by any good reader !   May 6, 2006
Charles-Eric Langlois (Montreal, Canada)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful

After reading The Da Vinci Code, I enjoyed so much Dan Brown's writing that I decided to give a try to another of his book. Deception Point looked interesting to me because of the NASA / politic conspiracy theme I had never seen before. The novel is quite different from the DVC and "Angels & Demons", two books featuring Robert Langdon as the main character and art, symbology and riddles as main topics.

After only 3 chapters, I had a hard time trying to put it down. The intrigue is fascinating and well-built, the characters are not numerous but complete and well developed as the story gets more complex. A few parts of the intrigue are predictable but the global development is great and full of surprises.

With this book, Brown proves he is an intelligent and dynamic author with a great sense of perfection (he did plenty of researches to expose the numerous technologies presented in his book). Great intrigue, great pace, a good novel for occasional and fanatic readers !