The Last Oracle by James Rollins Orion, HK$100

James Rollins writes the sort of conspiracy-laden mega plots that have made Dan Brown the wealthiest conspiracy-laden mega-plotter on the block. Rollins may not have a private jet to fly him to his study but that doesn't mean he's a lost symbol. After a minor blip with his last, 2007's The Judas Strain, The Last Oracle sees Rollins return to what he does best: gloriously preposterous mysteries whose solutions reside in an obscure corner of history - in this case, the Oracle at Delphi. Rollins' heroes are a bunch of renegade scientists called Sigma Force. Not only can these chaps work a Bunsen burner, they can also use it to blow up your house. Their operational leader is Gray Pierce. We first see him crossing the National Mall in Washington. 'It wasn't every day a man dropped dead in your arms,' Rollins writes, a sentence that might seem intriguing if it wasn't almost true in Pierce's case. Shot by a sniper, the man holds a strange coin in his hand that leads this band of rather unmerry men back towards ancient Greece. For there lies a secret so peculiar it threatens life as we know it. Take The Last Oracle on your next long flight. The time will fly by.