King Kong meets Homer in a less than successful adventure

Although this is not their first “Gideon Crew” novel, it is the first I have read and while it was entertaining, it was also a “lightweight.” These authors’ “Pendergast” series has lots of fantastical plots, and yet the protagonist is such a weirdly compelling character with such a mysterious backstory, the villains so devious, the plots so complex, and the locations so atmospheric as to just pull you along for the whole ride. The Lost Island has a fun opening gambit, but a literary plotline based on Homer’s Odyssey which is unfortunately less than successful, a so-so main character and strangely cold and not terribly likeable sidekick, and enough absurd scenarios to make me groan out loud in frustration.
Gideon Crew is a mysterious thief who works for an equally mysterious and very wealthy scientist, and is charged with stealing a page out of the famous illuminated manuscript known as the “Book of Kells.” The page holds a secret to a much larger world-changing secret, but that last secret sort of disappears as the plot gets waylaid by psychotic treasure hunters and mythological creatures. The scientist is incredibly smart but also incredibly stupid, and makes blunders a 7-year-old wouldn’t make. At times, I thought I was reading a poor Jules Verne novel, with King Kong at the center. The hero Gideon Crew just doesn’t worm his way into the reader’s heart the way our enigmatic Mr. Pendergast does in the other series by Preston/Child.
I may give one of the other Gideon Crew novels another go, but reviewers think The Lost Island is the best so far of the series, which doesn’t give me much hope for the earlier ones. Try them if you must, but if you haven’t already read them, start the Aloysius Pendergast series. Those are truly worth the effort.