Wasn't much of a key

I recently finished James Rollins' Doomsday Key. Usually, these kinds of books are a guilty pleasure of mine - action, adventure, conspiracies, Indiana Jones does the Davinci Code. I devour them and then quickly sell them back to the used bookstore before anyone knows I've read such pulp. That said, Doomsday Key was a bit of a let down. My own fault, this book is in a series, and I haven't read the earlier books. But I was able to figure out pretty quickly who was who and what was what. Returning characters Peirce and Rachel Verona are the stars, with appearances by Seichan, Monk and a handful of others - and we get some nice glimpses into the shady Guild organization. I won't say too much about the plot besides what does genetically engineers crops, mushrooms, Stonehenge, the Black Madonna, Illustrated Manuscripts, and apples have in common?

The best parts of the book were the historical bits. I love that kinda stuff.

The let down part for me was that the book was both predictable and unpredictable. I'm not going to make any mention of the plot, other than it's save the world before something awful happens.

Predictable parts: it was too easy to figure out who the bad guys were, who the soon-to-be-dead red shirts were. Thank you Dan Brown, no one will ever trust the British professor again.

Unpredictable parts - why make such a big deal about a damn apple, if it has nothing to do with anything? Nice bits of mythology, religion, etymology, some wonderful writing. but it was all for nothing, and that's too bad.

Will i read more Rollins? Hell yeah. Do i recommend this particular one? eh, not so much.