If you think you’ve had an interesting life, consider
Glenn Cooper. He studied archaeology at Harvard, became a
physician, specialized in the treatment of infectious diseases,
worked as a researcher, became the CEO of a biotechnology company,
runs an independent film production company, and has written
several screenplays. On top of all this, he is also an extremely
inventive and entertaining writer, as SECRET OF THE SEVENTH SON,
his debut novel, demonstrates.

SECRET OF THE SEVENTH SON is an intelligent thriller with
down-to-earth, realistic characters populating a story that you
won’t be able to put down for even a minute. The book spans
over 1,300 years of history, but is set primarily in the here and
now around an FBI agent named Will Piper. A legendary profiler who
has solved more than his share of serial killer cases, Piper is
burned out and seemingly incapable of a relationship with anyone
who isn’t named Johnny Walker Black. He receives an unwanted
shot at redemption when nine different individuals die after
receiving anonymous postcards that seem to predict the date of
their death, and correctly so.

Piper, reluctantly joining Nancy Lipinski, his equally reluctant
partner, begins an investigation that attempts to find a nexus
among the seemingly unrelated victims in the hope that a trail can
be followed back to an apparently omnipresent murderer. Just as
Piper and Lipinski pursue a lead that seems to go back to
Piper’s own past, however, they are pulled off of the case.
Their investigation, it turns out, threatens to reveal a secret
that has been hidden for over a millennium and meticulously
researched since the end of World War II at a secretive facility in
a part of Nevada known to the rest of the world as Area 51, with
the joint cooperation of the United States and Great Britain.

It’s not what you think, and the concept is relatively
simple, involving nothing more than information. But what
information it is. Piper, unwilling to stand down on his
investigation, goes rogue, making a cross country journey to a
confrontation with the past. Pursued by his own agency, as well as
a secretive group charged with preserving one of the most important
secrets in history, Piper is determined to discover the cause of
the deaths of nine people and bring the perpetrator to judgment.
His conundrum is that if he uncovers the secret, he cannot be
permitted to live.

SECRET OF THE SEVENTH SON may be a little unsettling to some
readers at first, as the narration, like Vonnegut’s Billy
Pilgrim, jumps from time to time to time. Hang in with Cooper,
however; there is a method to his madness, as well as mystery,
adventure and everything else we love in a thriller novel. And he
knows precisely what he’s doing. Fans of Dan Brown and Steve
Berry will find much to love here, even though it’s very
different from books written by those gentlemen. And, as a bonus,
there’s a generous excerpt from Cooper’s next novel
included here.

Ultimately, however, SECRET OF THE SEVENTH SON is, above all
else, a haunting work: once you’ve finished the last page, I
guarantee you will be asking yourself what you would do if you had
the secret in your possession. It’s the type of question ---
and story --- that can, and will, keep you up all night.