Minutes to Burn

✍ Scribed by Hurwitz, Gregg

• Publisher: HarperTorch
• Year: 2001;2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 314 KB
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN-13: 9780061015519

✦ Synopsis

"In the year 2007 the world is not what it was..."

Powerful earthquakes and hurricanes have left most of South America in ruins--and solar rays pouring down through holes in the depleted ozone layer can burn human flesh to a crisp in minutes. An impending global eco-catastrophe has brought a crack scientific team to a desolate island in the GalA paos--along with a ragtag squad of U.S. Navy SEALs entrusted with their protection--to position critical seismic equipment before the next wave of earthquakes hits. But there is something waiting for them all in the jungles of Sangre de Dios. A scientific phenomenon the likes of which has never been seen has evolved in the devastating heat of a killing sun. And with the world's future hanging in the balance, a desperate search for answers has suddenly turned into a terrifying war for survival--transforming scientists and soldiers alike into something they never dreamed possible: "prey."

From Booklist

Most of the time, Hurwitz's environmental catastrophe thriller resembles those '50s horror movies in which someone intones, "This must be the result of atomic radiation." Of course, now environmental pollution by a mutation-inducing virus is the culprit. Yet the yarn follows the classic pattern. Heck, it even has a lurking menace in the form of--you guessed it--a giant praying mantis. The manifold hero of the piece is a Dirty Dozen -style team of SEALs; the resident scientists range from eccentric to mad (one is gay); the secondary characters are expendable; and the mutated menace develops new improbable survival traits as the plot requires. Consider yourselves warned, but consider, too, that some characterizations are defter than expected, the Galapagos Island setting is vividly rendered, and the effort Hurwitz expends to strand his characters in an alligator-infested swamp after first physically and mentally disarming them is almost admirable. Few will turn these pages twice, but many thriller fans will thoroughly enjoy turning them once. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"...The science is fascinating, the story is exciting, and the plot moves with the unstoppable precision of a SEAL team..." -- Robert Crais, author of L.A. Requiem and Demolition Angel

"...Vivid cast, engrossing story... Hurwitz demonstrates once again that he's a thriller writer to be reckoned with." -- -- Kirkus

"...captures the warrior spirit of the past and takes us to a future where science unleashes discoveries that society has yet to comprehend..." -- Richard Marcinko, author of Rogue Warrior

"Get ready to stay up all night--Gregg Andrew Hurwitz is about to take you on a rollercoaster ride..." -- Jan Burke, author of the Edgar award-winning novel Bones

"Hurwitz's crew in Minutes to Burn are the hardest, orneriest, funniest soldiers since The Dirty Dozen..." -- James Thayer, author of Terminal Event and Five Past Midnight