The Sixth Idea

Tracy’s entertaining seventh Monkeewrench novel (after 2012’s Off the Grid) centers on a top-secret science project in 1957 that involved the eight men who developed the hydrogen bomb. In the present, Minneapolis homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth turn to the Monkeewrench computer experts—Grace MacBride, Annie, Roadrunner, and Harley Davidson—when the only connection they can find between murder victims Chuck Spencer and Wally Luntz is that Spencer and Luntz are descendants of the eight men. Meanwhile, Lydia Ascher, another descendant, tells Magozzi and Rolseth about a website called the Sixth Idea that Spencer created to locate other descendants. The detectives are flummoxed by a kidnapping and the existence of an assassin who appears to be protecting the descendants. The Monkeewrench gang need all their various skills to track other descendants, protect Lydia, uncover a clever conspiracy, and help end the carnage in this successful mix of detection and thriller. [em]Author tour. Agent: Ellen Geiger, Frances Goldin Literary Agency. (Aug.) [/em]