The Bottom Line: An electrifying page-turner with shocking twists and a jaw-dropping conclusion.
When forty-five-year-old U.S. Navy Captain John Mitcham gets stood up by his wife at a local restaurant, he assumes she just needs more space. John and Claire, gutted by their daughter’s suicide, have been taking time apart. But when John goes to do a welfare check on Claire, a neighbor informs him that Claire has moved away.
Inside the home, the former Navy SEAL finds – quite literally – a “Dear John” letter. But John, a skilled analyst who has trained countless intelligence operatives, doesn’t believe the handwritten note is authentic. Convinced that Claire is in terrible danger, John starts by interrogating his neighbor about the moving van he saw in the driveway. He then heads to Claire’s work, only to find that nobody’s heard from her in days.
At last, he visits Mason Harwell, another former SEAL who is now with the CIA. Mason tells him about a project called the Quantum Grail – a supercomputer intended to help the U.S. catch up to China’s cyberwarfare capabilities. But the Grail has been stolen, and Mason’s theory is that the perpetrators may have abducted Claire’s patients. So why would they kidnap their therapist? Mason: “I doubt any of them can function without seeing her twice a week.”
The full truth is far more interesting, as author J.D. Redvale ultimately takes the novel in a fascinating direction involving the fusion of neuroscience and artificial intelligence. To say more would spoil a lot of surprises in the second half of the novel, but let’s just say that Redvale explores of-the-moment technology and its potential applications for military purposes. Just a few years ago, the ideas floated in The Quantum Grail would have been deemed science fiction. Now, they seem frighteningly realistic.
Redvale, using flashbacks going back as far as 1999, gradually develops the emotionally compelling story of how John and Claire built a life together in parallel with John’s present-day revelation. The story of their daughter’s suicide carries additional emotional heft, as Claire’s father suffered the same fate.
Once John puts on his old SEAL gear after eight years away from the action, the book becomes a bonafide page-turner – right down to the shock ending that few readers will see coming.
