In the sixth novel in the Lang Reilly series, the mission is to recover a lost artifact Napoleon used to win battles
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Gabrielle Pantera
“Somehow the two stories meshed,” says The Bonaparte Secret author Gregg Loomis. He’d just read Michael’s Chugg’s book about Alexander the Great’s tomb when he came across an article about Napoleon’s failed Egyptian campaign. Writing Bonaparte’s Secret was an unexpected technical challenge. “Maude, my self-willed computer, ate about a third of the book, necessitating a complete re-write of about a hundred pages,” says Loomis. “After I had replaced the missing material, the original reappeared. I think the first draft was better than the second. Obviously, Maude agreed.”
The Bonaparte Secret is the sixth book in the Lang Reilly series. Reilly mission this time is to retrieve an artifact that Napoleon Bonaparte used to help win battles. This artifact has been missing for almost 200 years. Reilly’s search takes him all over the globe…to Venice, Port-au Prince, Alexandria and Paris. He must find it before anyone else and prevent it falling into the hands of the new dictator of Haiti.
The Bonaparte Secret is the first book by Loomis to debut electronically and in print simultaneously.
For research, Loomis takes extensive notes whenever he travels. “I verified my memory of Haitian history by using Google,” says Loomis. “Ten years ago, the same research would have involved multiple trips to a university library.”
The editor of Loomis’ first six Dorchester books, including The Bonaparte Secret, was Don D’Auria who is no longer with company. The other books in the series are Voodoo Fury, The Julian Secret, The Pegasus Secret, and The Gates of Hades. At this time Bonaparte’s Secret is not optioned for film or TV.
Loomis’ agent was Mary Jack Wald who retired in 2009. Loomis says he’s undecided as to whether I need an new agent. He found his agent using the traditional query letter process. In his alphabetical arrangement of list of agents to query, he remembers she was number 78.
Loomis lives in the vicinity of Atlanta, Georgia, not far from where he grew up and he still lives in the area. He’s a commercial litigation lawyer, a former racecar driver, and a licensed commercial pilot. He writes for the magazines FLYING and Scuba Diving. Loomis has over half a million copies of his books in print and is translated into several languages.
Loomis is currently writing a novel about a college student who gets a European vacation as a graduation gift. He becomes tangled in a terrorist plot, with Libyan terrorists, the CIA and the Italian Carabinieri after him.
The Bonaparte Secret (Lang Reilly Thrillers) Author Gregg Loomis. Trade Paperback, 336 pages, Publisher: Dorchester Publishing (May 2, 2011). Language: English ISBN: 9781428511125 $14.00
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