Book Review: The Tower by Simon Toyne (Sancti trilogy #3)

The Tower is the final book in Simon Toyne's Sancti trilogy. I will start this review by saying, if you have not read the previous 2 volumes in this trilogy, then I will highly recommend that you read Sanctus and The Key, before you read The Tower. Otherwise, you will have no idea what is going on in this book, because The Tower is not a stand alone novel. Furthermore, I will do my best to avoid spoilers in this book review, so you can savor the feelings of suspense, and elements of surprise, as you discover the twists and turns in this book for yourself. Ok, now I will start to provide a review for this book.

Synopsis:

In the present day, a computer virus assaulted NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland. This cyber-attack disabled the Hubble telescope. After the incident, FBI took over the investigation, and the number one suspect is Goddard's most prolific, Nobel price winning scientist, who vanished after the incident and left a cryptic message on his desk: Mankind must look no further.

FBI appointed two agents on the case; Agent Franklin, who possesses 20 years of experience at the bureau investigation. And Agent Shepard, a rookie with an impressive academic credential in astrophysics, who joined the bureau for his own reason. As this duo set out to solve the case, they discovered they were stepping into a web of mysteries that began when Citadel, an ancient monastery in Turkey, exploded 8 months ago. The incident involved the missing American journalist Liv Adamsen, and Gabriel Mann, a charity worker. Liv and Gabriel's fates remain unknown since the incident.

What truth will Agent Shepard and Franklin uncover, at the bottom of their investigations? Stay tuned, as the story of Sancti comes to a full conclusion in The Tower.

What I think about this book:

The Tower provides a satisfying conclusion to Sancti trilogy. Simon Toyne continued to write with a cinematic quality in each chapter, where his writings depicted every scene lively and vividly. This book also made an excellent use of short chapters. This quickens the pace of the book, while motivating its readers to continue reading, because this is a fast paced story.

However, the pace in The Tower is considerably slower than the previous 2 books. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, this book introduced two new characters, Agent Shepard, and Agent Franklin. These two characters took on the roles as the main characters, and Simon Toyne took time to establish these two characters, by using a sub-plot to explore the relationship between them. While the introduction/establishment of new characters did slow down the pace of the book, but personally, I greatly enjoyed the story of Agent Shepard and Agent Franklin, and I like both of these characters. I wish the author could have introduced them earlier, in The Key.

Secondly, the narratives in this book constantly switched between the present day (involving Agent Shepard and Franklin), and 8 months in the past (involving Liv and Gabriel). This “time-jump” narratives slowed down the pace of the book, making the story slightly more complex than previous books. But to Simon Toyne's credit, he managed to make this complex story fairly easy to follow. This means, while the story in The Tower is complex, but it doesn't feel complicated. Simon Toyne was able to combine these two major plot lines, spreading across the “gap of time", and merged them into one story, at the concluding chapters of the book.

However, having said this, I prefer the parts of the book involving Agent Shepard and Franklin (in the present day), than the parts involving Liv and Gabriel (8 months in the past). This is because I thought the plot line following Shepard and Franklin is better developed than the plot line that followed Liv and Gabriel. Without spoiling anything, let me just say I thought Liv and Gabriel's story felt rushed, especially at the end of the book.

When I turned to the last page in The Tower, I thought the ending felt a bit rushed, but it was a satisfying ending nonetheless, because every plot line in the story was concluded with no loose ends. Overall, I would say as a whole, Sancti trilogy is one of the better conspiracy thrillers I have ever read. I would recommend Sancti trilogy to people who enjoy reading conspiracy, mystery thrillers.