Bookshelf
The Calypso Directive
Brian Hittle, MBA '03 (writing as “Brian Andrews”)
Like its Ducati-riding daredevil, Agent Kalen Immel, this cliff-hanging thriller blasts out of its starting gate at 150 mph and
roars through New York, Prague, and Vienna, not letting up for the length of its 300-plus pages. This stunning debut novel
by Brian Hittle delves into many hot topics of life and business today: multinational conglomerates with deep pockets and
murky objectives, the mind-numbing capabilities of modern technology, and questions of ethics and ownership in biotechnology
and genetics.
Disturbing, informative, entertaining, and extremely readable, the book is populated by beautiful-but-brainy sirens, biomedical and IT
geniuses, cryptic chief executives, and one Will Foster, a human guinea pig undergoing inhumane medical testing who breaks out of solitary
confinement as the novel opens. Foster suddenly finds himself pursued by multiple parties, including a giant pharmaceutical company that
seems to own every conceivable independent lab, deliciously evil bounty hunters, and a mysterious brain trust called The Think Tank.
As we gradually discover, Foster is being targeted because he is genetic gold: He is immune to every known infectious disease. Big Pharma
wants to patent and market his genes, and he must fight to maintain his privacy, his identity, and his very life.
Tasked with finding Foster is The Think Tank, a diverse team of brilliant, James-Bond-like agents, each at the pinnacle of his or her field.
The description of the team might feel a little familiar to Johnson alumni. “The Think Tank is essentially fictionalized Johnson School grads
equipped with gadgets, guns, and guile,” says Hittle. “The very first thing that happens at JGSM is that students are thrust into crossfunctional teams to solve challenging cases and assignments. You can’t succeed without addressing everyone’s strengths and weaknesses.”
Hittle says the second Think Tank novel is forthcoming shortly - great news for thriller fans everywhere.
Ring of Flowers, a companion novella to The Calypso Directive, is available for free download at http://promotions.calypsodirective.com.
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