Zodiac Station - by Tom Harper (Paperback)

About the Book

"Originally published in Great Britain in 2014 by Hodder & Stoughton"--Title page verso.

Book Synopsis

For fans of Dan Brown and Michael Crichton--an eerie, evocative thriller set in the unforgiving Arctic from the author of The Orpheus Descent.

Deep in the Arctic, the US Coast Guard icebreaker Terra Nova batters its way through the frozen sea. A gaunt figure skis out of the fog on the pack ice. He says his name is Thomas Anderson, and that he's the lone survivors of a terrible accident at the research outpost Zodiac Station, located on the ice-bound island of Utgard.

Ten days earlier, he'd arrived at Zodiac Station looking to resurrect a career destroyed by scientific scandal. But things quickly went wrong when the man who hired him, brilliant biochemist Martin Hagger, turned up dead, at the bottom of a crevasse. The base commander insisted he fell. But footprints in the snow told a much different story. As Anderson tells a tale of sabotage, suspicion, and paranoia, the mystery only deepens.

When other survivors are discovered and their stories cast doubt on Anderson's reliability, it seems the grim fate of the scientists at Zodiac Station may involve human greed, jealousy, oil company trickery, Russian espionage, genetic experimentation, and global warming. But the truth is something no one on the Terra Nova could have imagined.

A fast-paced, gripping thriller that marries science and adventure, Zodiac Station is as chilling and unpredictable as the fierce Arctic landscape.

From the Back Cover

Deep in the Arctic, the US Coast Guard icebreaker Terra Nova batters its way through the frozen sea. A gaunt figure skis out of the fog on the pack ice. He says his name is Thomas Anderson, and that he's the lone survivor of a terrible accident at the research outpost Zodiac Station, located on the ice-bound island of Utgard.

Ten days earlier: Tom Anderson arrives at Zodiac Station looking to resurrect a career destroyed by scientific scandal. But things quickly go wrong when the man who hired him, brilliant biochemist Martin Hagger, turns up dead at the bottom of a crevasse. The base commander insists he fell. But footprints in the snow suggest a different possibility.

As Anderson tells his tale of sabotage, suspicion, and paranoia, the mystery only deepens. Then other survivors are discovered--adding their stories of human greed, jealousy, oil company trickery, Russian espionage, and global warming. But the truth is something no one on the Terra Nova could have imagined.

A fast-paced, gripping thriller that marries science and adventure, Zodiac Station is as chilling and unpredictable as the fierce Arctic landscape.

Review Quotes

"If anyone deserves the sobriquet of the thinking person's Dan Brown, it's Tom Harper. Zodiac Station handles with élan a multi-perspective story in which the eponymous Arctic station becomes a metaphor for multinational distrust." -- The Independent

"Harper brilliantly uses a framing device straight out of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in crafting an utterly compelling, sophisticated page-turner set in the Arctic. . . . A stunning payoff." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Harper is a master storyteller." -- Peter James

"An energetic, imaginative, and labyrinthine thriller. . . . The novel is full of twists and turns; it starts out as a murder mystery and winds up an SF thriller, with stops along the way for Cold War intrigue and political conspiracy. Great fun for genre-blend lovers." -- Booklist