A review by C J Dee
A review by C J Dee★★★★★ five out of five stars
The Roswell Conspiracy is a Tyler Locke thriller from Sphere.
In 1947, 10-year-old Fay Allen witnessed the crash of an extraordinary aircraft in her hometown of Roswell, New Mexico. Sixty-five years later, Fay enlists the help of former army engineer Tyler Locke and former army Ranger Grant Westfield to analyse a piece of the wreckage she kept from the crash. When they arrive at Fay’s remote New Zealand sheep station, Tyler and Grant find more than they bargained for in the form of two gunmen and Tyler’s college flame, Fay’s granddaughter Jess. It’s up to Tyler and Grant to help Fay and Jess find out what links Roswell to a deadly secret that could destroy the world as they know it.
The Roswell Conspiracy is the third book by Boyd Morrison to feature Tyler Locke. Having not read the first two books in the series, I can say with certainty that it holds up extremely well as a standalone story with only a few references to Tyler’s previous adventures. Based on this book, I will definitely be tracking down the first, second and fourth books in the series.
Boyd Morrison has managed something very few thrillers of this nature achieve: brilliant character development, fast-paced action and a story that is both believable and undeniably fantastic. It sounds cliche, but the story truly gripped me from the first page and didn’t let go until the last moment.
The historical information that (as explained in the afterword) needed very little exaggeration is woven together masterfully by Morrison. It’s enough to make you wonder if he may in fact be onto something.
Tyler Locke is one of the most interesting action heroes I have encountered in a long time, similar to Indiana Jones in that he’s just a guy doing a job and working through whatever is thrown at him. However, without Indiana’s trademark arrogance, Tyler is the quintessential nice guy who will have the ladies swooning and the fellas wanting to buy him a beer. The secondary characters, though I would hardly call them that in the traditional sense, are given a depth that is often not achievable with a cast of this many. Morrison has managed to create good guys who are great and bad guys who are truly despicable without sacrificing the pace of the story.
All in all, I enjoyed this novel immensely and would especially recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Matthew Reilly. The fast-paced, adventure feel of The Roswell Conspiracy is similar to many of Reilly’s novels.
If you love a good adventure/thriller story then this book should satiate your need for action, thrills and a down-to-earth hero.
Page count: 368 [excludes afterword and acknowledgements]
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Sphere
Rating: 5/5