Review of "Spin: A Captain Chase Thriller" by Patricia Cornwell

This second book in the 'Captain Chase' series opens soon after the dramatic conclusion of the first novel Quantum. The stories should be read in order.

*****

Captain Calli Chase and her identical twin sister Carme are savants who have an interest in aerospace science and aspire to be astronauts. Both women are pilots, but their careers have taken different paths.



Carme is in the Air Force and Calli is a scientist and NASA investigator. Since they were born, Calli and Carme have been groomed to be prototypes for merging cutting edge technology and AI with humans, and that plan is now being brought to fruition under the auspices of four-star Space Force General Richard Melville (Dick).....



.....and the girls' parents, both of whom are employed by NASA.



It's critical to 'upgrade' Calli and Carme now because evil billionaire Neva Rong, who runs a corporation called Pandora, is poised to co-opt the internet, industry, technology, and space for her own nefarious purposes.



Neva has inveigled powerful people into her schemes - including government bigwigs - and is able to steal, murder and manipulate without any blowback.

Dick is trying to stop Neva, and he needs Calli and Carme to assist him. Thus both women are implanted with advanced technology throughout their bodies, including an AI called ART. ART is connected to a quantum computer, and can pull up and analyze information in milliseconds.



ART relays information by way of 'talking' on a mobile phone or - if there's a need for secrecy - displaying information on special contact lenses worn by Calli and Carme. (Note: the implanted technology, and what it does - like monitoring body functions, opening locks, functioning as a GPS, communicating with drones, sending information to Dick, and so on - is described in detail.)

Neva Rong knows that Calli, Carme and their parents are involved in a plan to neutralize her, and she means to wipe them out.



To get inside information about the Chases, Neva is trying to use a 10-year-old boy genius named Lex, who's being mentored by Calli and Carme's father.



Mr. Chase always wanted a son and tends to share more with the boy than he should. Though Lex is exceptionally gifted, he's also a mischievous kid, and his shenanigans cause BIG trouble at NASA's Langley Research Center.



Calli narrates the story, and she describes one dramatic situation after another as she chases an errant Lex; is repeatedly stalked and attacked by killers;



goes to a meeting in the White House;



is sent on a mission that could alter the future of humanity; and more.



Calli also talks about her food cravings, body image, conversations with Dick, Carme and her parents, Lex's less-than-ideal home situation, and so on....all of which serves to personalize Calli and make her more interesting.

The author clearly did intensive research for this novel, and Cornwell describes myriad kinds of engineering, satellites, aircraft, spacecraft, etc. in detail. Cornwell also employs innumerable acronyms, which are hard to remember. I could have done with less of this tech talk, as it doesn't always advance the story. That said, this is an exciting futuristic tale that many sci-fi fans would enjoy.

Rating: 3 stars