Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Guilfoile (Cast of Shadows) ventures into Dan Brown territory in his mediocre second thriller. Thanks to a neurostimulator implant received as a child, Canada Gold can process information almost instantaneously, an ability that enables her to work as a jury consultant-and as a card counter. Canada still bears the psychic wounds from multiple traumas. Her father, Solomon, music director of the Chicago Symphony, was charged with the murder of his mistress, a cellist in his orchestra. After his acquittal, Solomon, who claimed to have reconstructed Mozart's intended ending for an unfinished composition, also was murdered. Canada's special gifts attract the attention of a shadowy cabal known as the Thousand, whose members are fanatical followers of the ancient Greek mathematician Pythagoras. The Thousand, of course, are behind many of the world's ills, such as the 9/11 attack and Hurricane Katrina, using "big disasters to disguise small crimes." Paper-thin characters and stock chase sequences make for a less than memorable read. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A conspiracy novel from Guilfoile (Cast of Shadows, 2005) involving intellectual descendants of Greek philosopher Pythagoras, a group called the Thousand.At the heart of the book is Canada Gold, whose name is evocatively shortened to "Nada." Her father, Solomon, had been an award-winning composer who was rumored to have completed Mozart's Requiem before his untimely murder ten years before. Solomon himself had been accused of killing Erica Liu, a promising young cellist with whom he was having an affair. Flamboyant attorney Reggie Vallentine got Solomon acquitted for that crime but also carried with him a terrible secretthat he, Reggie, was in fact the murderer of Solomon. A short time after his acquittal, Erica's unstable father killed Gold in revenge and then shot himself. This is all back story to Nada's uncanny ability to count cards in Vegasand perhaps to read minds as well. She's had a surgical implant of an electronic device she calls "the spider" that gives her almost superhuman, certainly hypersensitive gifts. (It turns out her father had had the same implant, and this is what allowed him to complete the Requiem.) Entrepreneur and art collector Gary Jameson learns about Nada's powers and wants help in deciphering a set of tiles being produced by Patrick Blackburn, also known as a crazed artist named Burning Patrick and recipient of a device similar to that implanted in Nada. The person responsible for these implants, a doctor/mathematician named Marlena Falcone, has just been murdered, and by the same weapon that had killed Gold. It turns out the Thousand have been split into two violently oppositional groups: the mathematici, who would commit violence to extend their right to use the knowledge handed down to them, and the acusmatici, headed by a brilliant but eccentric sheik, who would commit violence to keep this knowledge hidden.Arcane and muddled, and more evidence of the influence thatThe Da Vinci Code has had on commercial fiction.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

The Thousand, split into competing, deadly factions, follows the secret mathematics of Pythagoras. This divine math can fell planes and create divine music. It may have even caused 9/11. Set in a Vegas casino setting and then barreling across the United States like a desperate action film, Guilfoile's (Cast of Shadows) tale seems intent on getting some of The Da Vinci Code crowd. Our heroine has a brain implant that turns her into a walking, gambling, crime-solving supercomputer. The book itself struggles between the clumsy gait of a Hollywood thriller and attempts at a more thoughtful, nuanced approach. George Pelecanos can pull it off, probably because he evokes such a strong sense of place and moral consequence. Guilfoile offers a few good lines-"They were young kids, mostly, who still saw adversity as adventure or an excuse to party, or both"-but not enough. Verdict The abundance of gunshots, explosions, and short chapters may engage voracious mystery and thriller readers, but fans of Umberto Eco, Orhan Pamuk, or even Donna Tartt probably won't make it through.-Travis Fristoe, Alachua Cty. Lib. Dist., FL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.