Skeleton Key

I had stopped reading novels by Rollins for some time but a cheap download to read a short story caught my interest. It was nice to see Seichan featured in this story. The story begins with a clever conceit — Seichan is tripped up while trying to uncover some secrets of her former employer, the Guild, and wakes up with an explosive device, a choke collar, around her neck. In her hotel bathroom, she finds a young man with a similar device around his neck. Together they have to race through the catacombs of Paris to save the son of an enemy to Seichan. The young man has been “enlisted” to help because of his knowledge of the catacombs. They have only a few short hours to accomplish their mission or BOOM!

Story is fast paced but not much in the way of any surprises until the very end. Quick read and enjoyable. You also get a sneak peek at The Devil Colony and apparently something Seichan uncovers in The Skeleton Key figures in The Devil Colony. It is too bad that the sneak preview of The Devil Colony is longer than this short story. Would have been nice to flesh it out a little more, add a little more intrigue, and keep Seichan front and center. Fans of Rollins will enjoy this story. Just wish it could have been longer.

Okay, I gotta admit I’m loving the short stories that are coming out of the whole ebook phenomenon. The newest one I just finished is from a longtime favorite author, and it’s part of his ongoing Sigma Force series.

To sum up Sigma Force, it’s basically soldier scientists. And it reminds me a lot of the old Doc Savage pulp series, which, as it turns out, is purely intentional because Rollins was a big fan of those stories as well.

“The Skeleton Key” is a standalone story about one of the series’ chief villainesses. Think Catwoman to Batman here, because Seichan is attacted to one of the main Sigma Force characters. Seichan is a gifted assassin, trained to be one of the world’s best. But she has betrayed her bosses and her life is forfeit. She’s currently on the run.

This short story really shows its pulp roots when Seichan wakes up in a hotel room with a bomb locked around her neck. In short order, she’s given instructions by a powerful man to find his son down in the Catacombs beneath Paris. She doesn’t have a choice, and she’s given a young man as a guide, a confirmed cataphile (urban explorer who spends all of his free time climbing through the Catacombs).

Already at a breakneck pace, the story continues to accelerate. That’s a staple of a Rollins adventure tale: things happen quickly, and they generally happen big.

Also as usual, Rollins throws in several interesting tidbits of history, geography, and science. I was surprised at how much he could get into this story in so few pages (although well worth the 99 cents it costs at Amazon). And he blends action and setting so well that you hardly notice the background information he inserts into the story.

The story is a little predictable, of course. An action story at this length doesn’t have much time for twists and turns. Seichan appears masterful and competent, so any readers not familiar with her can easily become a cheering section. And the pacing is so quick that you’ll be nailed to the chair till you get it finished.

The story leads directly into Rollins’ next book, The Devil Colony, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Seichan awakens with a knife at her throat. She’s in a strange bed, in an unknown room, and the muffled voices beyond the door are speaking French. Seichan has “no home, no country. She had been recruited to discover the true puppet masters of the Guild.”
She had been drugged and could still feel the effects. Her Sauer pistol was still in its shoulder holster. Her fingers searched and found a pin sized keyhole under her right ear. The Place Vendome was outside, so logically, she had to be inside the Paris Ritz Hotel.
She soon learns that Renny MacLeod, a skinny eighteen year old, wearing a stainless steel collar is in the bathroom. Beautiful, elusive assassin, Seichan ventures into the infamous catacombs of Paris. Surrounded by moldering bones of the dead and dust of the centuries, she must fight for survival.
International thrillers are the daily manna of James Rollins. Fast action thrills, key-punch delivery and abundant historical facts pepper The Skeleton Key. A short read, but when we have skeletons stacked like firewood, who needs any more?

I feel a little like I got scammed. I bought the book thinking it was a short story with an ending. But instead it seems to me that it was a vehicle for the author to try and trap the reader into feeling the need to purchase a much more expensive book. The Skeleton Key does not have an ending . Instead the story is a prelude to another book. To find out how the story ends one must purchase The Devil Colony which at the time of this review is $9.99. So, I feel that I purchased a trailer. I think this fact should have been put in the book’s description.

This is a well done precursor to The Devil Colony, one featuring no Sigma, no Gray, no Painter…Just Seichan and a small supporting cast. I have to admit that after the last several novels I found myself getting a bit burned out on the Sigma Force novels but this Seichan solo adventure is short and sweet and very entertaining.

As usual Rollins mixes geographical and historical facts in with his high octane fiction. It’s always interesting to see his footnotes as to what’s real and what isn’t and he doesn’t leave that out in this short and sweet adventure.

I read this AFTER reading the Devil Colony but even so it was fun to see Seichan on her own and see what exactly she got up to prior to the events that unfold in The Devil Colony. Kudos to Rollins for giving the fans a story revolving completely around this complex and intriguing character. Definitely leaves you wanting more Seichan!

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