Area 51: The Grail

Area 51: The Grail is one of the late Area 51 novels from Bob Mayer's Doherty pseudonym, with the long-running paranormal-conspiracy series running through what turns out to be its closing arc. The protagonist Mike Turcotte and the team that has accumulated across the previous four books are working a mystery involving the actual Holy Grail and its alien origins, in the kind of dense mythological framework the Area 51 series has been building from the start.

Mayer/Doherty handles the form with the relaxed confidence of someone who has been running this particular machine for nearly a decade. The action is reliable. The mythology has accumulated more weight than it probably needed. The closing chapters land where readers of the series will expect.

Three stars. Recommended only to series readers. New readers should start at Area 51 (the first book) or skip the series entirely.