The Bottom Line: A relentlessly immersive, high-octane and cinematic thriller that readers won’t be able to put down.
In Cameron K. Moore’s excellent novel Fearless, top neurosurgeon Molly Jones realized that her curse – an inability to feel fear – could also be a superpower. As Moore’s third Trident thriller, Viper Island opens, Molly is now a Trident operative embarking on her first field operation. Despite all she’s learned, she’s no less vulnerable.
Fearing a bioweapon that attacks DNA, Molly is assigned to help protect biotech billionaire / close friend of the U.S. president Charlie Cole, during a high-profile humanitarian event in Accra, Ghana. What begins as a tense security detail explodes into a high-stakes ambush, leaving Molly scrambling to protect Charlie as well as a mysterious lost girl named Ella.
From the beginning, the world created by Moore is utterly immersive. With each succeeding scene, Moore proves that he may be one of the most cinematic storytellers at work today. He plunges his protagonists into several engrossing settings, including an abandoned village that would be the envy of M. Night Shyamalan – a camp for accused witches, complete with witch purification rituals that require animal slaughter. If that doesn’t get your adrenaline pumping, surrounding wildlife signal a warning just before the arrival of a death squad wearing tuxedos and hair nets over their faces. Moore ushers readers into firefights, escape sequences, and the disorienting psychology of captivity without ever losing emotional grounding. From underground cells to high-tech labs, he keeps the pace breathless and the tension high, while layering in themes of bioethics and loyalty.
The book is told from alternating third-person points of view, including Trident veterans Karl Shepherd and Gabriela Sanchez, who launch an unauthorized pursuit through diplomatic red tape and internal divisions in an attempt to rescue their people. Meanwhile, Molly is forced to adapt far beyond her experience, relying on her wits, medical knowledge and the hard lessons of a past she’s tried to bury. Despite feeling no fear of her own, she appears to be honing the ability to sense it in others. Meanwhile, in a fascinating but telling exchange, a ruthless antagonist named Scar diagnoses Molly with an “antisocial personality disorder” based on observations about her voice and facial features.
As the book goes on, the stakes grow ever higher, not just for Molly and Charlie and Ella, but for the balance of global power. And fortunately, Moore has more than a few big surprises up his sleeve.
