Murder Island

Action adventure as the grandson of Doc Savage traverses the globe to find his kidnapped girlfriend, Kira Sunlight. This is the second in an offshoot series, but it is not necessary to have read the first before enjoying this one on its own.

The former Brandt Savage, professor of anthropology and the University of Chicago, has now embraced his heritage and has teamed up with the woman who taught him all his new skills, helped him bulk up, and prepared him to meet and vanquish their enemies.

Doc and Kira are enjoying some private time on an island they’ve made into a little utopia when their solitude is destroyed by evil mercenaries who set up Doc for murder and take Kira. Her captors have nothing less than world dominion in their plans show more and want her to help accomplish that. Meanwhile, Doc is doing everything he can to escape his captors, survive those who are intent on killing him, and to find Kira.

Lots of battles, gunplay, death, etc. and it reads like a screenplay for a super hero or spy mission movie. It doesn’t take itself all that seriously and neither did I. It was just entertaining and a quick, easy read with trademark short chapters and lots going on. The characters are standard fare for this type of novel but they really want to have some depth despite being stereotypical.

I was able to listen to the audio book while also following along in the e-book ARC provided by the publisher. The narrators, Tim Lounibos and Suzanne Elise Freeman, did a fantastic job with all the voices, accents, and dramatic flair. Their performance enhanced my enjoyment of the book as it was an excellent production. show less

Murder Island is a thriller by prolific writer James Patterson with the assistance of Brian Sitts and was published in 2024. This is the sort of escapism we all need occasionally when and we can suspend all aspects of reality. But then I am sure there is someone out there with their tin foil hat who will see this more as documentary than thriller fiction.

Brandt ‘Doc’ Savage and his girlfriend are running for their lives and heading through the sewer system as the men chase them start shooting. When they get to Kira’s secret apartment it blows up, and they use this opportunity to disappear and let those hunting them think they are dead.

Kira has a lovely boat which they use to slip away from the USA and whoever their enemies are and show more are heading for a deserted island somewhere in the Atlantic. This could be the escape they needed while they think about next steps. Things do not quite work out like that when Kira has been kidnapped, and some young boys have been murdered, and he is being called out as the killer.

Doc has to find Kira, wherever she is in the world and right at the moment he has no idea where that could be. Especially when the doc himself is given a business proposal and lots of money to help a Belgium solve a mining problem in the Congo and its security problems.

Kira has been kidnapped by a darker side who also has mining problems in The Congo, someone has taken over his mine. He needs this problem sorting out and Kira is the best person for the job. Not that she actually wants it. But she has to do it and uses all her skills to do the job.

Both are entangled on different sides of the same global conspiracy of powerful criminals controlling important mines the developed world need for their electronic devices. To survive they will need to combine with people they have no real reason to trust. But they need to do this and make the world a better place again

A nice bit of escapism thriller writing challenging the reader about some of the places on earth we prefer to look away from. At least it is not preaching. A reasonable enough read. show less

Love this take on the Doc Savage mythos. There were so many callbacks to the original character and some made me chuckle. Like the new Doc's propensity for destroying his shirts. I'm a fan of the original and this was a good scratch to that itch.

Simplistic, improbable plots, but powerful suspense. I really did read this novel very quickly and thoroughly enjoyed it very much.