Product Description

From The Genesis Code to The Murder Artist, John Case has established himself as the master of unrelenting suspense. Now Case choreographs his most diabolically chilling novel to date, as the very fabric of civilization threatens to come apart in the hands of a brilliantly vengeful madman.

Photojournalist Mike Burke carried his camera into every war zone and hellhole on earth–and came back with the pictures (and battle scars) to prove it. He was flying high until, quite suddenly, he wasn’t. When Burke’s helicopter crashed and burned in Africa, he came away with his life but lost his heart to the beautiful woman who saved him. That’s when he decided it was time to stop dancing with the devil. But a wicked twist of fate puts an end to Burke’s dreams, leaving him adrift in Dublin with bittersweet memories . . . and no appetite for danger. But the devil isn’t done with him yet.

An ocean away, Jack Wilson leaves prison burning for revenge. Like Burke, Wilson has had something taken from him. And he, too, dreams of starting over. Only Wilson’s dream is the rest of the world’s nightmare. Driven by his obsession with a Native American visionary, and guided by the secret notebooks of Nikola Tesla, the man who is said to have “invented the twentieth century,” Wilson dreams of the Apocalypse–and plans to make it happen.

As a terrifying worldwide chain reaction is set in motion, Burke alone grasps the impending horror of Wilson’s malevolent plan. With nothing left to lose, Burke pursues an American terrorist–a twisted genius who journeys from a lawless weapons arsenal in the Transdneister to the diamond fields of the Congo . . . to an isolated Nevada ranch. It is here, in a climactic showdown, that a determined Mike Burke faces a nemesis who knows no fear.

John Case is the bestselling author of The Genesis Code, The First Horseman, The Syndrome, The Eighth Day, and The Murder Artist.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #888144 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-15
• Released on: 2006-08-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Bestseller Case (The Genesis Code) offers a gripping contemporary thriller with an intriguing concept—that terrorists would seek to use the secrets of famed inventor Nikolai Tesla to develop a weapon to cripple the U.S. The prime plotter, Jack Wilson, who's recently released from prison, harbors a consuming hatred against America, stemming from both losing a patent idea to eminent domain and the country's oppression of his Native American ancestors. Allying himself with an al-Qaeda offshoot, Wilson assembles technology to duplicate what he believes was a harmonic resonance weapon used by the dead genius to cause the legendary Tunguska crater in Siberia in 1908. Since the U.S. intelligence services are riven by incompetence and wrangling, a businessman who may have helped Wilson to launder money winds up in charge of trying to foil Wilson's plot. High quality prose helps offset an improbable detour at the end leading to an unconvincing resolution. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
The evils of genius are explored in this latest offering from Case, a pseudonym for husband-and-wife writing team of Jim and Carolyn Hougan. The novel begins and ends with Mike Burke, an American photojournalist living in Ireland, who becomes an unwitting accomplice in a terrorist plot orchestrated by deranged mathematician and ex-con Jack Wilson. The first 200 pages recount, in vivid detail, the drugs-for-arms-for-diamonds deal that funds Wilson's doomsday mission. It's not nearly as interesting as the second half, which illuminates Wilson's plan, inspired by the late Croatian inventor Nikola Tesla. (The elegant eccentric claimed, among many other things, an ability to manipulate electromagnetic energy.) Case (The Murder Artist, 2004) pens breathless conspiracy yarns that marry politics, history, and technology. Here, he delivers a swift plot and a cast of nefarious characters, from peevish government bureaucrats to shadowy operatives with connections to al-Qaeda. It's a chiller of a thriller that seems all too feasible in a post-9/11 world. Allison Block
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
PRAISE FOR JOHN CASE

The Murder Artist

“Riveting . . . a wonderfully disturbing tale.”
–Entertainment Weekly

The Eighth Day

“Deliciously sinister . . . a breakneck yarn of good vs. evil.”
–People (Page-turner of the Week)

The Syndrome

“Fascinating . . . The Manchurian Candidate on steroids.”
–Baltimore Sun

The Genesis Code

“[A] taut thriller . . . razor-sharp dialogue, Byzantine story twists, and several harrowing encounters.”
–Chicago Tribune


From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews

From Ukraine with Love
John Case (Genesis Code, First Horseman) is a master of the thriller and Ghost Dancer does not disappoint. Jack Wilson is an alienated and angry man, a follower of Ayn Rand with a deep interest in the work of Nikola Tesla - and he's the Ghost Dancer (the name Jack Wilson has historical significance for Native Americans as the originator of the ghost dance). The book is worth reading just for the exploration of Tesla's history and ideas. One of the scientific geniuses of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Tesla invented the radio and AC electricity. Why did the FBI seize his lab records upon his death? Did his `teleforce' device accidentally cause the 1908 Tunguska incident?

Could evil genius Jack Wilson refine Tesla's designs? And why would he want to? Well, he does hate the US government and that long stretch he did in the Supermax may just have sent him around the bend.

Wilson needs money to complete his plot and does business with Arab terrorists, Russian mobsters, and African strongmen to get the cash. But he makes some enemies and picks up a loving Ukrainian bride along the way.

Can former photojournalist and bereaved husband Mike Burke stop him? First he has to overcome the indifference and bullying arrogance of an FBI agent before time runs out. He's gonna need some help.

Highly recommended for fans of thrillers everywhere. Sweet twist at the end. Fans of John Case will not be disappointed.

A great read to the very end!
What an excellent thriller! John Case has written an itriguing novel with enough twists and turns that the ending comes as a true surprse. Although one of the main characters, Jack Wilson, becomes a "terrorist" who commits unspeakable acts of inhumanity, the reader eventually comes to understand the underlying reasons for Wilson's transformation from brilliant young graduate student to American terrorist. The other main character, Mike Burke, must deal with incompetent government officials and red tape as he is driven to find Wilson and stop him from completing his destructive plan. The plot centers around Wilson's search for Nicola Tesla's notes on manipulating energy and his own plans for revenge. John Case's thorough research and inclusion of both historical and technological information helps the reader to understand the basic premise of Tesla's work.
All in all, this is a riveting thriller that keeps the reader interested to the very end.

Another thriller from Case!
This is one of Case's best - But I must tell you this book starts out very slowly. BUT when the characters and their situations are all laid out, boy, the action starts. We all have read about Nicolai Tesla, and his brilliant ideas/inventions, but Jack Wilson puts his theories into a revenge against the USA, because of an unapproved patent, and his feelings of the American Indian oppression, (Wilson's Indian name is Ghost Dancer). Mike Burke, a former photojournalist, gets on Wilson's trail when his father-in-law's business is shut down by the govenment due to Wilson's setting up offshore bank accounts.
What follows is a fast paced wild ride.
As a fan of Case, since I first read The Genesis Code, he continues to WOW with his work. Thought The Murder Artist was his best work since Genesis, but Ghost Dancer ranks right up there with it.
Just get through the introductions of characters in Dancer, and hang on!