Gethsemane Hall

July 4, 2011
Canadian Freeston's first novel shares many traits with the work of such grand adventure writers as Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard, including flowery, sometimes florid, prose; outsized human figures and animals of heroic proportions; and improbable but entertaining quests. Megalomaniac Jason Conrad uses his incredible wealth to create the Doomsday Complex, a secret repository of the best genes and seeds of the world's animals and plants. Conrad's men kill hundreds in the process of collecting these specimens. Sgt.-Det. Irina Drach and Sgt.-Det. Athol Hudson investigate after Conrad's agents kill Jerome Perron, of the Montreal police K-9 squad, while capturing Perron's dogâthe ideal German shepherd. The primary action takes place in Canada's boreal forest, where champion racehorse Zarathustra and mighty lion I-árishóni escape from the complex and become key players in the drama. Readers thirsting for old-style adventure in a modern setting may find the match between the dogged Drach and the ruthless Conrad a satisfying read.