The Code Hunters. A book review by Elliot Jackman
BY JACKSON COPPLEY
Independent Author / Publisher
The Code Hunters is written by Jackson Coppley. It’s his first book in the Nicholas Foxe series.
The story revolves around an archaeological find in a cave, by a professional caver, that was nudged by an Army vet to take a look for an unknown passage near Carlsbad caverns. The find appears to be something that had to have been created by an advanced race, however, it’s obviously thousands of years old. It’s a massive metallic wall with an encoded message that pulls in Nicholas Foxe and others to try and figure out its meaning.
In this story, the protagonists are a group that winds up working together. Each has their own area of expertise that allows them all to contribute to the adventure in their own way. Nicholas specializes in the archaeological side of things, although it appears that he’s mainly taken over the project due to his wealth and a plain interest in the artifact. Tom, the experienced caver, remains part of the team after the find, but I’m not exactly sure why he wasn’t sidelined. I also don’t recall why Nicholas Foxe wound up at the site at all.
Rachael, assistant physics professor at MIT, sees a photo of the relic and feels like there’s something about it that she needs to follow up on. She winds up going out to the site and becoming part of the group as the scientific/musical mind of the group.
During the adventure of trying to figure out the meaning of the markings on the wall, the media coverage of the find starts to bring a few loonies out of the woodwork. Some want to get their hands on the artifact, or whatever it may lead to. Others want the find to go away and try very hard to make that happen.
The only parts that were disappointing were the conflicts. For instance, the team was once pinned down at a castle by a sharpshooter. This scene had the potential to be very tense, however, I believe that from the first shot to the time the shooter was found and killed was about a page and half. I was also a little dismayed that the police let the entire gang go home while a man was laying there with a bullet in his head.
Overall, I enjoyed the story. I felt that I wanted to see what was going to happen next with the team. The story moves along pretty quickly throughout without any areas that get bogged down in drama. There are a couple of romantic relationships that develop as part of the story, but they don’t take center stage and are not given more attention than needed for the reader to understand what’s happening.
ASIN: B07NLR9CZY
Print Length: 410 pages
ISBN: ISBN-10: 1091070113, ISBN-13: 978-1091070110