The Sixth Extinction

by D. Leonard Freeston

Jason Conrad, a man with the wealth of Bill Gates, decides to preserve for posterity the seeds of as many animal and plant species as possible in a vast and remote underground facility, taking the world's legitimate seed banks and "frozen zoos" to a whole new level. Conrad's secret doomsday complex, though, is staffed by a combination of environmental experts and mercenaries who will stop at nothing to achieve their once-noble ambitions.

After a fellow police officer is murdered and his award-winning German shepherd disappears, Montreal Sergeant-Detective Irina Drach and her young partner, Sergeant-Detective Hudson, connect the crime with a seed bank raid in Ardingly, England, and the kidnapping of a Triple Crown Thoroughbred named Zarathustra. Soon it becomes apparent that highly organized, ruthless abduction teams are raiding seed banks around the world, as well as scooping up the finest animal specimens from zoos, nature preserves, and the wild. Despite the global implications and ballooning media interest, however, Irina never forgets that her foremost aim is to solve the murder of a friend and fellow officer.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Canada

466 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now don't laugh, but I took this out of the library forgetting I'd already borrowed it. The first time I wrote how much I loathed it.

This time I read the whole thing - laughed out loud in places despite the gory descriptions. I must have been in a terribly cranky mood the first time - don't think I'd even finished it then. It's a combination of gore and an amusing relationship - but the humour is not coy or twee as it seemed to me to be the first time into it. Many 'meanwhile back and the ranch' situations but they just add to the fun. You have to be in the mood for it, maybe, but I had no desire to put it down this time.

[Sandra Bunting · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book at an event of élan, the English Language Arts Network in Montreal. It sat in my book shelf for a long time without me picking it up. Perhaps it was the cover - I am not a fan of red and yellow together. I certainly underestimated the book. It was wonderful. Animals were equally as strong characters as the protagonists - and I love animals. It was an interesting premise- an extremely rich man collecting seeds and animals - the best specimens of each - to create a new world after this one is destroyed, and to play God. Of course he is not interested in the actual animals -too difficult to care for, but their sperm and eggs. Once harvested, the live animals are no longer useful to him. Written as a thriller with two charming Montreal detectives on the case, the baddie and an interesting series of underlings, the author brings not only adds complexity to the human characters but to the animal ones. We follow characters from India to Rio to the northern Ontario wilderness, perhaps the most intriguing. Things are not wrapped up tidily in the end. It is messy, sad and realistic. The book makes us look at out place in the world, how we fit in with plants and animals and perhaps how we should perhaps rethink that relationship. We are not God.

[Karen Ferguson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joseph Conrad wants to save the world but can't even save himself. Romance, murder and a setting in Northern Ontario and scenes in India and Rio, it goes everywhere

[Jodi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got to the sex scene between the two detectives and I couldn't finish it. What started as an entertaining, but weak premise derailed with the male fantasy of the hot female detective.

[Alison C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jason Conrad is richer than anyone else in the world, so when he decides to use his money to create an underground facility in which to collect and store prime samples of all plant and animal life in existence, to be used to restore life after any apocalyptic event, he’s got the means to do it. But it’s not too long before his operatives become murderers, killing the guardians of such specimens, and when their tactics include the murder of a fellow Montreal police officer in order to steal his superior K-9 dog, Sergeant- Detectives Irina Drach and her much younger partner Athol Hudson begin to investigate. It’s not for nothing that Hudson’s avocation is advocating for the environment, nor that Irina is the smartest police officer ever….There’s a lot to like about "The Sixth Extinction," by d leonard freeston, not least the ongoing story of a super-alpha lion stolen by Conrad’s people and throughout the book at large in the wilds of northern Ontario. Annoyances include the pretentious lower-case-only name the author goes by; but far more the subtle sexism throughout the book in that *every* male character is called either by his full name or his last name only, yet almost the only *female* in the book (the others are very minor), also the *lead* in the story, is only ever called by her first name. Also the constant dwelling on her eating junk food which apparently all the men think will someday make her fat and unappealing (but not yet, as she’s a goddess of the female form, apparently). That stuff REALLY pissed me off. I did like the story, though, and kept rooting for the lion, called by the Maasai I-arishoni, the Destroyer of Life. He was quite magnificent.

[Rachelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was browsing in Chapters when I got a tap on the shoulder by the author saying hello. I hadn't noticed the table set up, but he introduced his book and I liked the sound of the topic (animals), so picked it up, signed of course. (Hello David, if you read this! lol)

Decently-paced suspense, jumping from police investigations to the villain's plan of capturing the best of every species of plant & animal on earth, to maintain a Doomsday Complex - where DNA can be kept in lieu of a global catastrophe/expected global warming extinction.

I had a few laughs at parts where they were listing the richest billionaires in the world and Canada, as they mentioned Galen Weston (whom my partner previously worked for). Also enjoyed all the Toronto references.

A somewhat surprise ending, which I liked, vs the normal cheesy endings I find come too often with novels.

[Tammy Corbett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished reading the book The Sixth Extinction by d. leonard freeston. I had trouble putting it down. This is a thriller about a Montreal cop who is trying to solve an international case involving endangered animals being abducted and collected by an ultra rich megalomaniac. The writing is clever and funny. I enjoyed the parts about the animals, especially the powerful lion named I-árishóni who has escaped and is tearing his way through a lake region in Ontario. Also fun to read is the banter between the two detectives who are trying to solve the case of the missing animals and bring the mastermind to justice for the collateral damage often involving injury or death of caretakers. See http://www.the-sixth-extinction.com/.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story revolves around Detective Drach who is an older widowed lady that is still very beautiful and her partner who is younger and a sort of popular environmentalist. Throughout the book you can tell he is definitely into her and even as the case of a lifetime engulfs them, you can see how this will end up. The case starts out with one of their own officers killed and his champion K9 taken. This snowballs into them finding out about a ton of elite animals being taken worldwide.

The story really picks up steam and continues at a fast pace. Word of caution, don't get attached to any of the characters. Good book and didn't expect it to end the way it did.

[Betty McMahon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty interesting. Well written and understandable for a book with some complex ideas.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

cool story idea, but the dialog was terrible and there was too much foreshadowing so the story became predictable.

[Frederique Courard-Hauri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entertaining. Dry and sharp. I would have given it four stars, but the sex scenes were just too ... too.

[Jody Berland]

This is an unusual murder mystery, with a woman detective set in Montreal and an eccentric millionaire trying to create a genetic Noah's Arc. Like any good science fiction story, it could happen.