Thank you Netgalley and Agora books for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review

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So, I was, indeed, happily browsing through Netgalley and stumbled upon this book. I saw the cover (which was a great deal different from what is portrayed here) and was mystified by it. Me being me, I decided to check the premise and oh, my! It sounded interesting enough, and I've never heard about this type of book in my life, so I thought I'd give it a try.

As a side note, I may just suppose this book is a “newer” version than the one published before. Alas, I'm also ignorant on whether I should have read the 17 books before (although I don't think so, because it wasn't marked as it) to actually get sucked in. But well... If I had to, my bad.

Additionally, I was also incredibly excited because the main themes of the book were biological warfare, disappearances and the Cold War. The Cold War is something I've been also studying a great deal in my field so well, would there have been any losses? No, not at all.

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Anyhow, having said that its only fair to flesh out the plot of the book, isn't it? The book is about two 52-year-old identical twins. Miles is a headmaster and Howard is a bacteriologist with a fascination for birds. Anyways, one day, out of the blue, Howard disappears and so, Miles is contacted by an investigator, John Appleby.

The main problem with the brother’s disappearance was not the brother himself, but the fact that he could have in his hands an incredible dangerous weapon during this era. Unfortunate indeed...

So, what happens? Well, conveniently enough, John Appleby goes on and tells Miles about his brother’s disappearance, urging him to tell him anything that could be of use to him. After their short conversation, he proceeds to tell Miles he must cover up for his brother, so he has enough time to investigate without people noticing Howard’s disappearance.

And well, after that, we have the investigation going on... Conversations leading to clues, brooding, you know the drill...

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Anyways, this book presented itself with some interesting conversations. (concentration and destructiveness of power) My main problem alas, probably was the writing. I sometimes found myself questioning my ability to read. On top of that, I wasn't exactly keen on the characters and I might even consider it had purple prose, which is not something I enjoy.

In conclusion then, I had incredibly high expectations for this book. 1) Because I'd never heard a similar premise, 2) The time period, 3) The title!! and 4) the setting.

I really do hope, however, that someone comes to enjoy it and cherish it. It definitely wasn't something for me, but it might be for someone else.