Far too often he relies on silliness like 'Gray had memorized the layout of the castle.' This grows in frequency as we near the end. Rollins is not the tightest writer in terms of offering reasonable explanations for the twists and turns of the story. Of particular value here is the technology, both real and speculative, and the offered history, a definite plus. There are plenty of sub-mysteries concerning who is on which side in both the Vatican and Sigma, which adds some spice. Raoul, the major bad guy is straight out of central casting, lacking only steel braces. Joining Pierce in his attempts to find out who, what, and where is Rachel Verona, Vatican Caribinieri and niece to a Vatican big-wig. There is a secret afoot and a highly competitive treasure hunt in which Sigma tries to outpace not only the Dragon Court, a millennia old cult of alchemists and overall bad guys, but their hired team of assassins, the Guild, led by Pierce's personal enemy, the cold-blooded Dragon Lady. When a cathedral in Cologne is assaulted by a crew using strange technology that leaves all present but one dead, and the take is ancient Magi bones, the Church is, as one might expect, alarmed. It comes complete with an opening action sequence that introduces the two antagonists. Sigma is the good guy crew here, led by Grayson Pierce, this book's version of 007, ably assisted by his trusted buddy, Monk, and the relative newbie, Kat.

Map of Bones is an action adventure tale, combining both ancient secret societies, a la Dan Brown, and other secret societies, a la.well.

Map of Bones by James Rollins