Covenant
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'Get the cameras rolling - Indiana Jones meets Alien. What a combination of mystery, suspense, and unspeakable horror. I loved it!' --R.L. Stine
'Earth-shattering intrigue, hyperdrive action and a desperate race to save humanity, cranked up to the max with scarily realistic science and apocalyptic religion thrown in for good measure . . . a major new talent has hit the mystery thriller scene'
--Scott Mariani, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Lost Relic
"The fossilised remains of a 7,000-year-old creature dug from the sands of the Negev Desert in Israel become the bones of contention in Dean Crawford's fast-paced debut thriller... The book neatly threads together a wild variety of plotlines." --Wall Street Journal
`Partly mythical read, part thriller this pacy tale is a page turner guaranteed to keep you up late' --Sun
'Earth-shattering intrigue, hyperdrive action and a desperate race to save humanity, cranked up to the max with scarily realistic science and apocalyptic religion thrown in for good measure . . . a major new talent has hit the mystery thriller scene'
--Scott Mariani, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Lost Relic
"The fossilised remains of a 7,000-year-old creature dug from the sands of the Negev Desert in Israel become the bones of contention in Dean Crawford's fast-paced debut thriller... The book neatly threads together a wild variety of plotlines." --Wall Street Journal
`Partly mythical read, part thriller this pacy tale is a page turner guaranteed to keep you up late' --Sun
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I always envisaged that putting together a decent thriller novel is much like making a cake. There is a recipe that outlines all the key ingredients that need to be included to make it turn out perfectly. The instructions would probably read something like this. Start with a slightly jaded hero, if you can get one who has a troubled past so much the better. Add a couple of dashes of political intrigue and, if you have it, a sprinkling of potentially controversial subject matter. Mix well with a secondary narrative that will eventually shed additional light on the first, then after around six hundred pages you'll have an ideal thriller.
Covenant is a pretty good example of this mix of ingredients. There is plenty of action and the plot zips along at a decent pace. Crawford's debut novel certainly feels like an entertainingly solid read. It's the sort of thing that I can easily lose myself in for a couple of hours at a time.
Ethan Warner is a far more realistic protagonist than you tend to come across in many other novels of this type. When he is first introduced he has just suffered a beating and has a hangover. He fits into the slightly flawed category quite nicely. I have to admit that I do sometimes get a bit sick of heroes in thrillers who win every single fight they are in. It's nice to find a character that isn't perfect. This sort of detail certainly makes it far easier to empathize. Ethan is ex military and now makes a living as an investigative journalist, you quickly get the sense that he has fallen on hard times. He is offered the chance to get his life back on track when he is tasked with leading a group on the hunt for a missing archaeologist deep in Israel's Negev desert.
Meanwhile over six thousand miles away, in Washington DC, a gruesome multiple homicide is discovered by local police officers. Lucas Tyrell and Nicola Lopez are the two detectives who are unwittingly thrown into the middle of a mystery that will have wide reaching consequences for them both. The good news is that their chapters of the story are as entertaining as those that feature Warner.
Neither set of events appears to be linked to one another but as the plot unfolds it becomes clear that there is a much bigger conspiracy developing. How are these two seemingly unrelated events connected and who is behind them? Crawford does a good job of slowly weaving these disparate strands together while managing to leave enough questions unanswered that guarantee you will continue to read.
Overall reading Covenant is a similar experience to discovering the pilot episode of a new television show. The story acts as a fitting set up for the main characters and there is a definite sense that now they have come together a larger journey is about to begin. This is a good start and shows a great deal of potential. I'll be looking out for more of this author's work in the future.
Covenant is released on 11 November 2011 from Simon & Schuster. A sequel, Elixir, is due out in May 2012.
Covenant is a pretty good example of this mix of ingredients. There is plenty of action and the plot zips along at a decent pace. Crawford's debut novel certainly feels like an entertainingly solid read. It's the sort of thing that I can easily lose myself in for a couple of hours at a time.
Ethan Warner is a far more realistic protagonist than you tend to come across in many other novels of this type. When he is first introduced he has just suffered a beating and has a hangover. He fits into the slightly flawed category quite nicely. I have to admit that I do sometimes get a bit sick of heroes in thrillers who win every single fight they are in. It's nice to find a character that isn't perfect. This sort of detail certainly makes it far easier to empathize. Ethan is ex military and now makes a living as an investigative journalist, you quickly get the sense that he has fallen on hard times. He is offered the chance to get his life back on track when he is tasked with leading a group on the hunt for a missing archaeologist deep in Israel's Negev desert.
Meanwhile over six thousand miles away, in Washington DC, a gruesome multiple homicide is discovered by local police officers. Lucas Tyrell and Nicola Lopez are the two detectives who are unwittingly thrown into the middle of a mystery that will have wide reaching consequences for them both. The good news is that their chapters of the story are as entertaining as those that feature Warner.
Neither set of events appears to be linked to one another but as the plot unfolds it becomes clear that there is a much bigger conspiracy developing. How are these two seemingly unrelated events connected and who is behind them? Crawford does a good job of slowly weaving these disparate strands together while managing to leave enough questions unanswered that guarantee you will continue to read.
Overall reading Covenant is a similar experience to discovering the pilot episode of a new television show. The story acts as a fitting set up for the main characters and there is a definite sense that now they have come together a larger journey is about to begin. This is a good start and shows a great deal of potential. I'll be looking out for more of this author's work in the future.
Covenant is released on 11 November 2011 from Simon & Schuster. A sequel, Elixir, is due out in May 2012.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
When humanoid bones are found in a remote dig in Israel, scientists start going missing. Ex war correspondent Ethan Warner is called in to conduct a missing persons search for Lucy and keep it under the radar to prevent derailing the peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. However he must take with him Lucy's desperate mother, Rachel, and keep her safe in a troubled land. It soon becomes clear that there's more to these bones than meets the eye. Why are they so important? Are they the bones of our ancestors, a fallen angel or could it be an extra-terrestrial life-form?
Now, I'll freely admit to avoiding "conspiracy thrillers" like the plague. Unfortunately, publishers market them as Dan Brown wannabes which just doesn't appeal to me but I know I'm being prejudiced. As I was sent a copy to review, and I'm all for giving every genre a shot, I'd thought I'd better see what I was missing out on. To be fair, the blurb says it's more like Michael Crichton and it does have a science element. Although when the science or history just got interesting it would seem to stop and carry on with the plot. Being over 600 pages long, I certainly wouldn't have wanted extra pages, so I think Crawford is just trying to fit in too much.
Saying that, it is a pacy read so you'll soon whizz through those pages. There are a lot of characters too and I found myself getting confused a little with who's who, a side effect of not enough time time spent of developing their personalities. It was also lacking a bit in emotion when people, who you're supposedly meant to care about, die. Description was spent on the actual physicality of their deaths rather than the after-effects. This probably isn't a concern to regular thriller readers and possibly what puts me off them.
With so many characters and things going on, you start to feel the story is being wrapped up when there's 200 pages left to go, yet each character seems to get their own ending. Along side Ethan's adventures in Israel, there is a police investigation running back in Washington DC. I enjoyed this side of it though it also suffered from over-population of characters.
It's positive to see a book that tackles Christian extremist views at a time when everyone thinks it's only other religions that harbour fundamentalists. The evangelical pastor is a rather scary character, and whilst taken to extremes here, there are people like him in the world.
There is a follow-up novel next year, Elixir, and I'd be tempted to know how Ethan gets on with the search for his wife, who disappeared in Israel years earlier. I shall have to wait and see how many pages it's got!
Now, I'll freely admit to avoiding "conspiracy thrillers" like the plague. Unfortunately, publishers market them as Dan Brown wannabes which just doesn't appeal to me but I know I'm being prejudiced. As I was sent a copy to review, and I'm all for giving every genre a shot, I'd thought I'd better see what I was missing out on. To be fair, the blurb says it's more like Michael Crichton and it does have a science element. Although when the science or history just got interesting it would seem to stop and carry on with the plot. Being over 600 pages long, I certainly wouldn't have wanted extra pages, so I think Crawford is just trying to fit in too much.
Saying that, it is a pacy read so you'll soon whizz through those pages. There are a lot of characters too and I found myself getting confused a little with who's who, a side effect of not enough time time spent of developing their personalities. It was also lacking a bit in emotion when people, who you're supposedly meant to care about, die. Description was spent on the actual physicality of their deaths rather than the after-effects. This probably isn't a concern to regular thriller readers and possibly what puts me off them.
With so many characters and things going on, you start to feel the story is being wrapped up when there's 200 pages left to go, yet each character seems to get their own ending. Along side Ethan's adventures in Israel, there is a police investigation running back in Washington DC. I enjoyed this side of it though it also suffered from over-population of characters.
It's positive to see a book that tackles Christian extremist views at a time when everyone thinks it's only other religions that harbour fundamentalists. The evangelical pastor is a rather scary character, and whilst taken to extremes here, there are people like him in the world.
There is a follow-up novel next year, Elixir, and I'd be tempted to know how Ethan gets on with the search for his wife, who disappeared in Israel years earlier. I shall have to wait and see how many pages it's got!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
From the very beginning of Covenant, the reader is drawn into the story through intrigue and action.
American archaeologist, Doctor Lucy Morgan disappears and in steps maverick Ethan Warner, who has the skill of finding lost people. His mantra starts with `If you've got nothing, then nothing matters.'
Reluctant to work discreetly for the Defence Agency, the leverage of a promise to find out what happened to Ethan's fiancée Joanna (who went missing in Gaza three years ago) is used if he will help find the missing archaeologist. He is presented with a photograph of Joanna in a hostage situation earlier that year.
After a briefing session of what is known about Lucy Morgan's disappearance, Ethan's mantra changes to `If you've got nothing, you've everything to gain.'
A couple of unrelated incidences follow ... which only hooks the reader in. You want to know where they fit into the story, what part do they have to play.
What follows is a blending and merging of the threads as the reader becomes a part of this thrilling journey into science/mythology, politics/conflict and religion/belief.
The characters became real for me - we find out what Ethan looks like through his own scrutiny of his reflection in a car's wing mirror while being a passenger - I thought this was a different and much more interesting way to get to know what he looks like! How the characters relate to each other and their own pasts make them believable and you find yourself either hoping everything works out for them or they get what they deserve...
For me, Covenant was a real page turner. I was hooked in from the beginning and didn't lose my absorption until the last full stop. The writing flows with tension that alters your breathing and gets your own adrenalin pumping!
The book ends as Ethan is given a new brief in New Mexico and we find out that the next novel to be released in May 2012 is called `Elixir.' I would definitely read more from this author.
I think Covenant will be a popular book choice in its genre of adventure-thriller fiction. I would also recommend for anyone who is interested in science and mythology. Author Dean Crawford says on his website `All of my novels contain a core of real science around which the stories are constructed.'
I also think that Covenant would translate really well to the silver screen.
American archaeologist, Doctor Lucy Morgan disappears and in steps maverick Ethan Warner, who has the skill of finding lost people. His mantra starts with `If you've got nothing, then nothing matters.'
Reluctant to work discreetly for the Defence Agency, the leverage of a promise to find out what happened to Ethan's fiancée Joanna (who went missing in Gaza three years ago) is used if he will help find the missing archaeologist. He is presented with a photograph of Joanna in a hostage situation earlier that year.
After a briefing session of what is known about Lucy Morgan's disappearance, Ethan's mantra changes to `If you've got nothing, you've everything to gain.'
A couple of unrelated incidences follow ... which only hooks the reader in. You want to know where they fit into the story, what part do they have to play.
What follows is a blending and merging of the threads as the reader becomes a part of this thrilling journey into science/mythology, politics/conflict and religion/belief.
The characters became real for me - we find out what Ethan looks like through his own scrutiny of his reflection in a car's wing mirror while being a passenger - I thought this was a different and much more interesting way to get to know what he looks like! How the characters relate to each other and their own pasts make them believable and you find yourself either hoping everything works out for them or they get what they deserve...
For me, Covenant was a real page turner. I was hooked in from the beginning and didn't lose my absorption until the last full stop. The writing flows with tension that alters your breathing and gets your own adrenalin pumping!
The book ends as Ethan is given a new brief in New Mexico and we find out that the next novel to be released in May 2012 is called `Elixir.' I would definitely read more from this author.
I think Covenant will be a popular book choice in its genre of adventure-thriller fiction. I would also recommend for anyone who is interested in science and mythology. Author Dean Crawford says on his website `All of my novels contain a core of real science around which the stories are constructed.'
I also think that Covenant would translate really well to the silver screen.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Middle of the road
I was looking forward to reading this book, but was a little bit disappointed. I thought the idea for the story was great, but I really did not like the main protagonist, Ethan... Read more
Published 14 days ago by The Book Nut
Too Long
Like most Hollywood films now this book started well and then just went on and on.
It should have quit half the way through whilst it was winning. Read more
It should have quit half the way through whilst it was winning. Read more
Published 4 months ago by mike barden
Exciting start, but slow- hoping it gets livelier
The first chapter, introduction, was exciting and I felt it was going to be a fast paced, exhilarating thriller. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Beadee
Fantastic depth and detail
What a fantastic read this book was. The conspiracy behind the story was great, went in to a lot of detail so that you could fully understand what everything meant, without that,... Read more
Published 5 months ago by DeanD24
Great promise; doesn't live up to it
Scientist finds bones of humanoid creature in Israeli desert; remainds and scientist go missing; ex-military type with kidnapped fiancee gets involved in search for missing... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Keen Reader
Overlong, non-existent characters, but kinda readable
This book is long. Much too long. It's Mr Crawford's first novel and it does feel like it could have done as much in half the pages. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Rose's Dad
Fantastic!
This is a great book, if you're a fan of Dan Brown, Michael Crichton etc I can highly recommend this. Read more
Published 5 months ago by nic1974
A gripping and fab read!
I loved this book, I took it away on holiday with me and struggled to put it down. The beginning has about 4 different stories going on and the further through you get you start to... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Lexy1972
Did nothing for me I am afraid
I'm sorry, but I struggled with this. When I keep looking at how many pages I have yet to go, I know something is wrong. Read more
Published 6 months ago by N. Brett
Gripping and Fast paced, Had me Hooked!
I don't usually read thrillers but I loved COVENANT and couldn't put it down.
Despite its masculine cover, this action-packed adventure held much more than just your... Read more
Despite its masculine cover, this action-packed adventure held much more than just your... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Rebecca L. Royle
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