Twists and turns and the edge-of-your-seat story kept me guessing until the very end.

Thirteen Across is fictional but boy I could see this actually happening today.

Loved the characters and the fact that it left me wanting more. I cannot wait to read more by this author! WOW!

Title: Thirteen Across
Author: Dan Grant
Genre:Thriller
Pages: 514
May 13,2019
Rating: 3

Description

THIRTEEN ACROSS. Seven stops. Seven sets of clues. A race against time. Covert medical research. Will FBI Special Agent Kate Morgan survive it? It starts with an unfolding puzzle and Thirteen Across.
Kate Morgan is on an Orange line train when it is bombed. Phillip Barnes has made his attacks on the nation’s capital personal. Thirteen Across is an ominous sign of the events to come. Kate finds herself thrust into the center of a grander conspiracy.
Barnes reveals an unfolding puzzle—its challenge charts a course, one that expires at midnight. Puzzle solutions and destinations expose a dark past built on illegal human research and a quest for the Perfect People Initiative. Kate must log the tours. She’s charged with saving those that she can. If she survives, the final destination is a place for Kate to atone for her past sins. She’s murdered a killer’s family, and there are consequences for that.
The FBI brings in real-life puzzlemaster, Will Shortz, to riddle out stops, while Kate works the frontlines to save seven victims. Each stop is meant to cause pain and torment, yet reveal secrets.
The clock starts at the Foggy Bottom Metro station and ends seven stops later. What Kate thinks she knows about her past is tested as is her ability to survive her trials.


My thoughts
Crossword puzzles, secret government projects, super soldiers, and other dark secrets like medical research, what do they all have in common and what do they do with FBI Special Agent, the bomber, as well as a puzzle master while to answer that question or questions you need to read the book for yourself. I do have to say that while there was twist and turns, and the plot was different then any I've read there was times I was kind of lost and had to go back and re read a page or two, to the point that I just re started the hole book just to understand the story better, as well as the figuring out what character was which and when I did that the story just fell in to place. Of course I had no idea that it was part of a series and if I had know it, it would have made this one a lot easer to understand what was gong on in some parts.With that said I want to thank NetGalley for letting me read and review it

Man has been on an eternal quest for improving its lot. Super-intelligence, super-athlete, super-hero. The military has its own programs. The Perfect People Initiative and the Advanced Biogenetics Initiative. Their goal? To breed the perfect soldier. And they’ve bred a few. Not all of them happy about it.

Philip Barnes was raised in rural WV. As a child, he watched as he lost family in a huge mining accident. While his family was pulled from the disaster alive, an out of her element family medicine rookie failed to save any of his family. Yes, Philip carries a grudge.

But Philip was more than a coal miner’s son. He was one of the first PPI/ABI products. Off the charts intelligence. Trained by the military to be a supreme warrior. Highly skilled in combat, weapons, explosives, electronics, and logistics. Jason Bourne is a clown by comparison.

Another engineered soldier is Rachael Pratt. Army captain and a true warrior. She and Barnes had a fling during training, but it didn’t work out. She is still controlled by the program’s head, a 2-star in the Pentagon.

Barnes has come to the realization that breeding of a perfect race of soldiers is misguided and sets out to expose the program and exact revenge on those who ran the program (sound familiar to a certain Robert Ludlum series?). The program was setup and run by a bunch of neuroscientists, many of whom were relatives of big-time military and politicos. And they’ll all have to pay.

Dr. Kate Morgan (the aforementioned inadequately prepared family med doc) is an FBI forensic pathologist who’s been called to testify before Congress (something from the previous book, The Singularity Witness). On her Metro ride to Capital Hill, her train is sabotaged, killing dozens of commuters. Captain Pratt was part of the rescue effort and pulls Dr. Morgan out.

From here, Morgan, the FBI and a litany of other 3-letter agencies track clues to who was behind one of the worst domestic attacks ever. Clues, in the form of tattooed skin taken from the chest of victims, are solutions to a crossword puzzle leading Morgan and the FBI through underground tunnels and abandoned fallout shelters. Barnes isn’t making it easy (BTW, there is a nice supporting effort that features Will Shortz, the real-life editor of the NY Times crossword puzzles).

First thought: This is a highly complex plot that takes Morgan, et al. all over (and under) DC. Barnes is bent on not only exposing the program but also in exacting considerable pain and revenge on the program’s leaders. Using a crossword puzzle is an ingenious method that challenges the reader and the FBI. The level of planning and logistics to pull this whole thing off is off the charts multi-tiered along with being heavily armed and boobytrapped. And it's well written. Short, concise chapters that jump around without the reader losing track of the complex plot. A 'page turner' is a good descriptor.

Second thought: How in the hell could one person pull this off? The costs had to be astronomical. Sure, if Barnes could hack into spy satellites, he could probably hack into Ft. Knox. But still, the scheming must’ve taken years to come together. If he’d really wanted to bring down this program, just write a manifesto, send it to the Post, NY Times, Wikileaks, etc. Go down as a hero instead of as the worst domestic terrorist in US history.

But where would the fun be in that?

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review. A book with a very interesting premise devolves into a total mess in terms of coherent and understandable plot devices. All this deals with a mass murderer who is using a crossword puzzle to deliver clue to his next victims and attacks, which in turn is about super secretive government projects. So much alphabet soup jargon, and events to our heroine that are next to impossible to survive yet alone overcome all sorts of injuries to end up saving the day. Parts of the book I enjoyed and parts were just too much. This appears to be part of at least a 3-part series, and there is a lot of background that is also being given to you that really makes little sense if you have not read the first book. It was an OK read but doubt I will spend time reading #1 or future books in the series. Since half is good and half is bad I rate it 2.5**, but round it up to a 3.

This book wasn't for me. I really struggled to get into it - lots of characters that I wasn't able to keep up with. I love the premise but the beginning wasn't enough to hook me in.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an eARC of this book.

After spending far more days than I ever spend on a book, I feel I should have liked it more than 3 stars but I just didn't. The plot was fast moving but often hard to follow. Medical experiments performed on humans should have appalled more than they did. Perhaps it wasn't made clear enough what was being done. The author did not do a great job in his portrayal of female characters. He made them strong but not realistic. I read the book in small bits which is probably why I made it all the way through. Not terrible but I begrudge the time I spent.

FBI agent Kate Morgan starts her day with a commute to downtown D.C. to a hearing she never makes. A bomb goes off killing many but Kate survives. She is stamped with a number to show she is among the living from the wreck but that number is important in what happens to her through the day.
The story has to do with a secret group who are enhanced humans which are experimented on by a secret part of the government. The man who started this whole thing has made a puzzle with seven events and a part of the puzzle is revealed at each event. Kate is trying to help solve the whole thing. It is on a time limit as well so they are trying to do what they can but it has to be as quick as they can. Can they solve the puzzle before the time runs out?

Wow! Hold on tight for a fast and furious terroristic rollercoaster ride in Dan Grant's novel: Thirteen Across. This action-packed thriller hurtles us through the streets of Washington, D.C. Special F.B.I. agent, Katherine Morgan finds herself in a frenzied race against time to solve a baffling crossword puzzle or before more innocent people die!

Kate works alongside Rachel Pratt, who was the subject of genetic government experiments that have provided her with the super-power of self-healing, and with Will Shortz, who is the N.Y, Times crossword puzzle editor. Will is a master crossword puzzle solver.

The main antagonist in Thirteen Across is Philip Barnes. Barnes was also the subject of genetic government experiments, which bestowed upon him super intelligence. The crossword puzzle must be solved by midnight. There is only a few hours to accomplish all that must happen to stop death and disaster. The Thirteen Across storyline moves at a frantic pace.

Thirteen is a fast, smart, action-packed F.B.I. thriller novel! If you enjoy an unputdownable, super-fast-paced thriller, Thirteen Across is it!

This book started out good but somewhere after the first few chapters I got lost and confused. I had a hard time keeping everyone and everything straight. Everyone else seems to have liked it so maybe it just wasn’t for me

Fast paced ride that I hated to end! I can't wait for the next one! Agent Katherine Morgan has quickly become one of my new favorite characters.

Join FBI Special Agent Kate Morgan in this action-packed thriller, as she tries to solve cryptic puzzles set by a killer as payback for killing his family. With time running out, more secrets will unravel, and Kate will have to fight to save herself first if she ever hopes to save seven victims.
Thirteen Across was a fun, fast and entertaining read. I would recommend

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.