Don’t you just love misdirection?

 

Sometimes it can be fun. Take movies, novels, television, you name it. When something seems to be one thing, and turns out to be something entirely different and totally unexpected, it can be a wonderful thing!

 

On the flip side, it can be very annoying as well, and can possibly ruin it for you.

 

But that’s not the case with Deep Storm by Lincoln Child.

 

As is usually the case with the reviews I write, I will not give away anything about the plot, other that what you can garner from the back cover.

 

A deep sea drilling platform has discovered something hidden beneath the ocean bed, far deeper than anyone could have imagined.

 

The discovery will shake the entire foundation of what we know.

 

The problem is, twenty months after the discovery, the construction of a huge, multilayered research facility at a staggering cost; those people who are stationed there are starting to get sick.

 

Even more bizarre is the nature of the illness. The symptoms are varied and seem to have absolutely no common factor.

 

Enter Dr. Peter Crane, a former submariner and doctor who has a reputation of being able to figure out the causes of bizarre and often deadly illnesses.

 

Ok, so what we have here is in effect a military thriller. We have a deep sea research facility where secrecy is of the utmost importance, to the point people will be killed to keep what they have discovered secret.

 

The problem is, the facility is run by a collation of top military brass and scientists, and the military is slowly wresting control of the entire facility from the scientists, putting it under their tight fisted rule.

 

So, even though I enjoyed this novel immensely, I found that aspect of it pretty cliché. Don’t get me wrong, it didn’t detract from my enjoyment one iota.

 

Again, without giving away any of the crucial plot details, I found myself the victim of misdirection not once, but THREE times in the novel.

 

All three times when I thought I had figured out what was going on, I quickly discovered that I was wrong each and every time.

 

A very well written novel, in that aspect.

 

It kept me guessing right up to near the end of the novel, and what I finally learned surprised me greatly, and truth be told, if something like this was to really happen, scared me.

 

Of course, it’s pure fiction, but it certainly does make a person think.

 

There were other aspects of the book that I found rather cliché, but they worked. There was, of course, the always present saboteur, which it seems no military or thriller novel can do without these days.

 

The military personnel also were your typical cliché’s, although to the end, one of them surprised me.

 

As did some of the scientists that were involved the entire research project.