Publisher's Weekly Review
Astrophysicist and BBC science celebrity Sandy Jones, the protagonist of this predictable thriller from Bonner (the David Vogel mysteries), is about to assume the chancellorship of Oxford University when she receives a phone call from a former close friend, Connie Pike, "psychologist, philosopher, and innovator," who has dedicated her life to the work of RECAP (Research into Consciousness at Princeton). Connie is vague about the reason for her call, and Jones shortens their conversation with a promise to get back to her. But before she can do so, she hears a news report that Connie and a colleague have been killed in an explosion. In despair, and feeling guilty, Jones heads to the States, where she's caught up in a by-the-numbers plot involving shadowy government figures, violence, and secrets. Underdeveloped characters hinder any emotional engagement. Bonner has done much better than this clichéd effort. Agent: Toby Peake, Peake Assoc. (U.K.). (Mar.)
Kirkus Review
And now for something completely paranoid from the creator of DI David Vogel of Dreams of Fear (2020, etc.): an intercontinental crime novel whose dark heart is a paper that reveals the secret of consciousness. Years before she became a celebrity astrophysicist, a household name to everyone with a computer or a television, Exeter U's Dr. Sandy Jones, who's just been offered the chancellorship at Oxford, crossed the pond to study at Princeton. Two of the solitary, geeky scholar's few friends there were closely associated with RECAP, the center for Research into Consciousness at Princeton. Encouraged by her schoolmate Constance Pike and by professor Paul Ruders, who ran RECAP, Jones took enough tests to make her wonder if she might have unsuspected psychic powers herself. Upon completing her Ph.D., she ditched her boyfriend, math prodigy Ed MacEntee, took a job in London, married, divorced, and never looked back. When she brushes off an urgent call from Connie Pike only to discover days later that the campus building housing RECAP was destroyed by a suspected bomb, she's determined to do something even though she can't imagine what to do, and it's too late to help Connie and Ruders, both presumed killed in the explosion. Flying to Princeton, she endures an awkward reunion with Ed, who's also divorced, and an even more unpleasant run-in with the New Jersey State Police, who arrest her, jail her, and release her on the understanding that she's to head home immediately. What are the powers that be trying to cover up? And did Paul Ruders indeed plumb the mysteries of consciousness before his own lights were put out for good? An academic suspenser whose brainy bits and action scenes both work beautifully without ever quite coming together. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.