KILLING DRAGONS: Order of the Dolphin, Book One by Kristie Clark – Environmental Thrillers, Navy SEAL Dolphins Sci-fi, Human-Animal Communications Thrillers

A search for the truth behind Lusca, the legendary sea dragon, leads to areas far more menacing than a mere myth in Kristie Clark’s Killing Dragons: Order of the Dolphin.

Eva Paz is a doctorate-level marine biologist at the Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences (RIMS), performing research on whistle-signature spectrograms. Even though Eva believes she’s close to a breakthrough in dolphin-human communication, her statistics may not be enough to keep the grant she needs to continue her work and support her employment at RIMS. Her connection with a petite Atlantic bottlenose dolphin named Taffy, an animal trained by the Navy, and Taffy’s mate, Finn, go back thirteen years during a horrific time in Eva’s life.

During that time, Eva met Thomas Sternberg, a Navy SEAL diver who changed his career path to a pediatric oncologist. He’s also Eva’s ex-boyfriend. 

Luis’s mysterious death (boyfriend to Eva’s mother) raises concerns about the welfare of her family since she becomes the sole supporter; holding onto that grant is now a necessity. Even more disturbing is the sizeable conical tooth found near his corpse—a sign to the locals that Luis fell victim to none other than Lusca, the mythological sea dragon.

Julian Gulliver, a notorious investor, approaches Eva, hoping that she’ll take up his offer to support her research while requesting her assistance to identify a predator that’s been attacking Atlantis, his open-ocean fish farms. Unbeknownst to Eva, Julian hires Thomas as his expert diver for his newly-opened dive shop in the expensive Parrot Tree resort, a legal cover for his illegitimate business transactions. 

Meanwhile, Taffy’s pectoral fin washes ashore with another conical tooth.

Heartbreaking as that is, Eva discovers something else. Taffy is pregnant. As Eva’s problems build with additional mysterious deaths and Finn earmarked as the target monster, the last person she expects to have back is Thomas. Danger only heightens when he joins her cause, trying to solve the mystery behind the Lusca myth.

Rising author Kristie Clark spins a gripping debut that is more fact than fiction. Clark sets her story in Roatan, the largest and most developed of the Bay Islands in the Western Caribbean. Her book opens with a glimpse into the life of Eva Paz—a devoted marine biologist whose research focuses on advanced human-and-animal communication with Navy dolphins trained to locate sea mines—before all things sinister break lose.

Luis’s horrendous death fosters locals’ belief in the legendary Lusca.

To Eva, Luis’s demise only sends a reminder of her horrifying past when her brother died. From that point, scenes continually flip from backstories to the present and alternate between protagonists (Eva, Thomas, and even Taffy, the dolphin!) and antagonists (Julian and Ignacio).

The events in Killing Dragons cover little over seven nail-biting weeks.

To keep her narrative flowing, Clark employs a variety of literary elements. One is her journal entry style that opens each chapter, which mentally prepares readers for location changes. 

High on the literary-element chart, though, several unresolved situations among the characters roll from one unsettling scene to the next; add to that, terror continues building as the mysterious monster takes more lives amid the ominous presence of Julian and his minions. If that wasn’t enough, Clark throws one more item into the mix: the slow-burning-sexual tension between Eva and Thomas’s strained relationship.

Clark skillfully weaves in a flurry of fascinating facts covering everything from environmental issues with the fish farming industry and the reality of tainted fish to the severe effects on humans and the latest treatment in oncology/cancer research. Clark includes incredible advances in marine life research, as well. 

Brilliantly executed, Killing Dragons undoubtedly whets the literary appetite of those who like their sci-fi thrillers with a bit of sexy in the mix. Clark has no trouble holding her own in the vast field of thriller authors – and readers will be happy to learn the next book in the Order of the Dolphin series may splash on the scene very soon!