Labyrinth

by Mark T. Sullivan

In this heart-stopping thriller by acclaimed author Mark Sullivan, marine biologist and cave researcher Whitney Burke vows that she will never set foot underground again. Still traumatized by the tragic loss of her assistant on her last expedition, Whitney can only watch from a distance when her husband and daughter agree to join a NASA-sponsored caving trip. When the expedition is seized by a band of criminals—effectively holding her family hostage—Whitney must surmount her all-consuming fear and put everything on the line for her family. Battling her own terror and the paralyzing elements of the subterranean atmosphere will take all the knowledge and strength Whitney has in this high-stakes tale of adventure. “Expertly crafted, [LABYRINTH] is one of the most exciting yarns of this millennium. Brilliantly told and realized. A great read.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Suspense, Mystery, Adventure

442 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 6, 2002

About the author

Mark T. Sullivan (b. 1958) is an author of thrillers. Born in a Boston suburb, he joined the Peace Corp after college, traveling to West Africa to live with a tribe of Saharan nomads. Upon returning to the United States, he took a job at Reuters, beginning a decade-long career in journalism that would eventually lead to a job as an investigative reporter for the San Diego Tribune.

Sullivan spent the winter of 1990 living with a group of skiers in Utah and Wyoming, and used the experience as the foundation for his first novel, The Fall Line (1994). In 1995 he published Hard News, a thriller based on his work as a reporter, and a year later he released The Purification Ceremony, which won the WH Smith Award for Best New Talent. His most recent work is Private Games (2012), which he co-authored with James Patterson. Sullivan lives with his family in Montana, where he skis, hunts, and practices martial arts.

Reviews

[Sully Augustine · Rating 2 out of 5]

3 stars out of 5 - I read it over the past few evenings. It kept my interest, but maintaining suspension of disbelief was hard with this one. The technical premise is one thing. It's science fiction of a sort, so the author gets to hypothesize a moon rock with properties as unusual as he wants. But the physical and psychological premises go way beyond the limits. Ordinary day to day people simply do not suddenly become capable of traversing tens of miles through challenging, barely explored, cave systems simply because they have an experienced guide to lead the way and demonstrate how to do the terrifying sorts of feats experienced cavers and rock climbers train at for years. . .

[Caleb Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Labyrinth by Mark T. Sullivan was lent to me by a co-worker who thought I may find some interest within. I did stray away from my comfort zone with this one and while it was written well enough, it's not something I would pick up to read from a book store or download to my kindle.

I thought the author did a fine job with the research involved in this book that had to do with cave diving. I had no idea that the state of Kentucky had such an elaborate cave system underneath the surface so it was nice to read about something that I knew nothing about but in the same token, I had a difficult time visualizing the scenes and action sequences of what the cave chambers and grottos looked like. To me, it was a bit redundant as the characters carried on throughout the cave system in search of this special moon rock that was hidden by a mad scientist who was prisoned for murder.

A cave diving expert and his daughter were taken captive and forced to navigate the caves to find this special rock for a group of escaped convicts one of which was this mad scientist Greggor. This special rock collected from the moon and brought to a lab was supposed to be able to turn rocks to a mineral more valuable than gold. Greggor sold the other inmates on the idea of escape to find this rock from where he stole and hid it.

It took me a little longer to finish this one as I lost interest throughout the read but there was a nice little twist in the end that brought greater meaning to the moon rock and why it was sought out. I don't want to take credit away from the author, he did a fine job writing this even with the editing errors that I stumbled across which suprised me considering this was a traditional printed book, but it just wasnt my cup of tea. With that said, I am sure others who like the thrill of cave diving or rock climbing might find this to be an excellent read.

[Bob Andrews · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I did like about this science fiction book featuring the search for a powerful moon rock in caves beneath Easter Tennessee just wasn’t enough. No matter how hard I tried, I could not imagine what it must be like wandering dark, scary caves.

The cave diving adventurers - escaped convicts, veteran cavers including a 14-year-old girl and her dad, even some NASA explorers - wander from one cave to another then another, all pretty much the same. As if cave diving was easy as long as you had a good guide.

This is supposed to be scary science fiction, and it might make for a solid movie, but everyone seemed to be able to handle the so-called terror of the deep.

What I did like was the 14-year-old girl, Cricket, who was used as a hostage by the convicts but who outwitted them at every turn. Way to go, Cricket!

I’ve liked other books by Sullivan, including "Serpent’s Kiss," and some of those he did with James Patterson, so I will continue to pick his books off the shelves. Labyrinth, however, wasn’t much more than average.

[Christina Musial · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not my typical genre of book, but I love Mark Sullivan's historical fiction so much I gave it a shot. I enjoyed the premise of the story and found it an interesting read. I had no idea Kentucky was built on this impressive cave system and want to research that more.

I'm not usually a science fiction fan, so I will admit to skipping entire sentences (sometimes paragraphs) because the technical explanations meant nothing to me. Sullivan completely lost me for entire portions of the book with the descriptions.

It did seem outlandish that these felons, escaped after years of imprisonment, kept pace physically and psychologically with an expert like Tom, Whitney & Cricket Burke. As a character, Lyons was underdeveloped for me. I never got a true sense of his motivation.

Enjoyable read, but definitely not my genre.

[Patricia Moller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful and Compelling

Start this book and you won't be able to put it down! I know one thing now for sure: I could never be a cave explorer. What courage and grit they have! This is a great story that needs a sequel!

[Debbie Tremel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adrenaline

I give the story four stars, but the book lost one for editing. Sad when so many blatant typos and misuse of words get through professional editors. As for the story, I had read Sullivan's historical fiction books first, but knew I was heading into a science fiction book, even so, the story wasn't quite as rich as the writing of his other books, but if you're looking for an adrenaline rush story, this isn't bad. Be prepared to suspend some belief though in rookie's and sick people's ability to do extended days of technical climbing and walk and swim in flood waters. But if can do that, it's a fast paced, thriller that takes you into the unique realm of caving.

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what a heart-pounding adventure. I loved "Beneath a Scarlett Sky" and "The Last Green Valley" but at the same time, they were so heavy, knowing they were based on people and events that really occurred. So I wanted to try out one of Mark Sullivan's books that was totally fiction. This book didn't disappoint. I loved the characters and the way we saw the story unfold from different angles, all of them exciting and suspenseful. It kept me awake several nights and I had to force myself to put it down so I could go to sleep. This was one of the most exciting books I've read in a long time. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

[Goddardcc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Sullivan (Beneath a Scarlet Sky) is one of my favorite authors and I love books about caving (Blind Descent, Shibumi) and Labyrinth is both. A world class caver and his 14-year old daughter are taken hostage by a homicidal scientist and his prison escapee cohorts. The scientist is on a quest to retrieve a moon rock with phenomenal new properties that he stole and hid in a vast cave system in Kentucky. He needs the caver to help him get to it.

The book is a bit too long and Sullivan’s descriptive powers have not developed as well as in his later works but the book picks up and the last 100 pages fly by.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very suspenseful and will keep you turning pages! All the cave exploring was really interesting, although it also made for a terrifying setting. In fact, the plot in general was over-the-top calamitous. After so many things going wrong, I started needing some pretty serious suspension of disbelief. A lot of bad language and graphic descriptions of violence also.

A far cry from the first book I read by this author, The Last Green Valley. In the future I’ll stick to his books more in that style!

[Rocky Henriques · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good story!

I have never been in a cave, except as a tourist, and found the descriptions of a largely unexplored cave fascinating. This story has as many twists and turns as the cave it describes. I only gave it four stars because it looks as if the ebook was scanned from a manuscript, and poorly so. Words misspelled, punctuation marks completely missing, etc. made it difficult to read at places. Overall, it was well worth my time to read.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rip-roaring page turner of a yarn! An extremely fast-paced tale in the unusual location of an underground cave network. A race to survive and find some government sensitive moon rock all the while being in the clutches of some violent escaped convicts.
At times I found it hard to breathe with the scenes underground, great escapism, but not for you if clostrophobic!! I thought it was very good.

[Kent Mally · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Suspenseful Tale in a Strange Environment

This is an amazing read which occurs almost entirely underground in a cave. The prize is a moon rock with philosophers stone properties. The fickleness of politicians and their pursuit of power are also displayed. The truth is somewhat disheartening.

[A H · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having read the last green valley and all the glimering stars, both of which I couldn’t put down I thought I had found a great author. However Labyrinth was quite the opposite. Uninspiring and boring. Like other readers I found the details of the cave internals difficult to imagine in any detail so this all became very repetitive and unnecessary detail.

[Catherine J Kearns · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adventure, intrigue, can't wait to turn the page kind of book.


Mark Sullivan has a wonderful way of bringing his book into your mind . Hard to focus on anything but the next page

[Steve Gibbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool story...fun look into "caving".

I liked this book. Great characters, well written and suspenseful. Nice themes about getting past one's wounds and fears and finding compassion for those dealing with them.

[Karl Muller · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the other reviews of this being akin to a SyFy movie are apt... and there's nothing wrong with that. The book was a fine read, a decent basic introduction to some basic spelunking concepts, and had just enough of a plot to hold it all together.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow!!!! It took a little bit to get into the story but by the middle I was hook. So much suspense.
Poor Whitney, such a tragedy she endured. Then to find out her husband and child are in trouble and she is the only one who can help the marshalls rescue them.

[Ian McDougall · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolute Crap

One of the fluffiest mummy, daddy and cricket (my God where did he get that nickname from). Somehow I got to 80% but couldn't go on. First time I haven't been able to finish a book in 60 odd years.

[Krissi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit far fetched, but a highly entertaining read - like an underground, claustrophobic, roller coaster with a search for a mysteriously, powerful moon rock and some bad guys thrown in for added action. Sometimes you just need to read for the fun factor and go along for the ride.

[Clement Natale · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rediculous

This novel was totally inane. From the unrelenting descriptions of spelunking and unbelievable survivable episodes to the pompous "upright life lessons earned".

I read this book for comic relief.

[Teresa A. Corbitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cavers

I knew nothing about exploring caves, this book gives an overview of what it is like to explore caves. Added to that is the drama of a mad scientist with a moon rock.

[Geoff Taylor]

Thrill

A quite exciting read and a lot to think about, but not at all
Believable,but you can kid yourself. Ok

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took awhile to get into this story but once in I was hooked. This was a great read

[Meghan Beatrez · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed it until the last 200 hundred pages or so when it begun to feel incredibly long winded and drawn out. I found myself skimming pages just to get to the end of the book.

[Lori Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fascinating book. Great descriptions of the inside of the cave, made me claustrophobic reading it. Great character development. Loved the courage of cricket!

[Clark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a big science fiction fan, so I gave up on this book about half way through.

[Sheila Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great sci-fi/thriller. The plot moves along at a good pace, the characters are interesting, and the setting is unique.

[Ken Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unique

Interesting setting for a thriller. I don't recall reading one before that takes place in a cave. Good story telling with ok character development.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book.

[Michael Laurence · Rating 4 out of 5]

not into cave diving i was a 'beach' read