The Thousand

The Thousand (2010) by Kevin Guilfoile. This is one of those novels, like "The DaVinci Code," which explore ancient societies and obscure clues and find patterns in things that otherwise seem to have no pattern. In this case it's "The Thousand," a cult-like assemblage of men and women who are heirs to the genius of Pythagoras, the Greek philosopher and mathematician who lived five centuries B.C. The Pythagoreans are divided into two opposed camps, the acusmatici and the mathematici, and they wield tremendous influence in the modern world -- causing airplanes to crash, making large cities suffer blackouts, murdering their opponents and pinning the crimes on innocents -- they do it all. Caught up in their web is Canada Gold, an attractive young woman who has a "spider" implanted in her brain -- an enhancement that makes her hyper-aware of her surroundings and able to perceive patterns that others can't see. For example, she can read lips; she can count cards; she can read people's emotions from small variations in their facial expressions and musculature. That just begins to scratch the surface of this book, which also contains a murder mystery and a romance. In spite of the esoteric nature of the conspiracy theory contained therein, the book is a pretty good read. If nothing else, it is original in its juxtaposition of plot elements. Grade: B+