It all starts on an average day when he makes a couple of deliveries, the last one being to Union Station. Some crazy guy comes out of nowhere swinging a huge rock on the end of a chain, trying to bash in his head. As he escapes, he figures perhaps he wasn’t the intended victim and he encounters a shapely redhead named Mina, who was picking up the package he delivered. After an initial scuffle, the two decide to work together to find out who is trying to kill the both of them. This will involve Sam making contact with a pile of the organizations he regularly deals with, including the Templars, the Satanists, V.E.N.U.S. (Mina’s group of shapely cohorts), the Anas (the anorexic antitheses of V.E.N.U.S.), the Assassins, the Clone Wolves, the Shub-Internet, the aliens and the list goes on and on. Sam decides that the whole plot is being organized by someone he nicknames Mr Blank and he and Mina determine to get to the bottom of this man or woman’s identity – even if it kills them, which it just might. Amidst all of the chaos, conspiracy and danger, Sam and Mina just might be falling for each other, or maybe she’s just trying to kill him too. Who knows?
Mr Blank is a delightful story. While I will confess that there were so many organizations and characters that I sometimes got a wee bit lost in them (especially if I would read a chapter here and there instead of one long reading session), I loved the story. Justin Robinson is quite witty and Mr Blank is chock full of wonderful nerd/geek references. The average reader (the non-geek) might miss them completely and that’s fine. They just weren’t meant for that person. But I found myself grinning often and sometimes even laughing out loud while reading. I even made a trip to Wikipedia to look up a couple of names mentioned. I don’t like a book that forces me to look something up, simply because it doesn’t make sense or they assume you know the material, but I love a book that is so clever and interesting that I want to do additional research on the things they mention. Such is Mr Blank.
I read a lot of books. I am an avid reader, plus I review books as well. That being said, I am insisting that my husband and my best friend read Mr Blank. We’re all nerds and I think they’ll enjoy the book as much as I did. I don’t do this often. In fact, I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve insisted they read something I’ve reviewed. So, if you’re a nerd and you love secret societies and conspiracy theories, you’ll get a kick out of Mr Blank. Consider this my nerd stamp of approval.
