This story is too far fetched to earn high praise. A loner veterinarian who prefers sticking his elbow up a cow's ass to spending his $100M inheritance? An ex-CIA operative and cryptologist who aspires to be a monk? A mad scientist who runs a black ops team who has unlimited authority to commandeer and kill the residents of any community in America without explanation? I mean, wouldn't there be some government forms required to do that?

This book has two things going for it. First, our hero made a promise and commits to keeping it despite some personal risk. Second, it advances an interesting new theory on what really killed the dinosaurs: the Venus particle, or literary boredom, or something along those lines.