Product Description

An adrenaline-packed adventure thriller set in Egypt about the hunt for a fabulous lost treasure.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9835 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 592 pages

Review
In 523 BC, the invading army of Cambyses was destroyed, buried in its entirety by a sudden sandstorm in Egypt's Western Desert. No one knows exactly where the army is buried, though many have tried to find it and failed. There are those who say that the whole thing is a myth, dreamed up by Herodotus the historian to add flavour to his books. Luxor 2001. Inspector Yusuf Khailifa has a dead body on his hands, a shady artifact trader dragged from the Nile. Nothing so unusual in that, but the horrible mutilation of the man's face leads him to believe that this is more than just another swindler's quarrel.In Cairo, zoologist Dr Tara Mullray arrives to visit her Egyptologist father for the first time in years and finds him dead in his dig-site house. From a heart attack, it seems, but Tara too is suspicious. Their separate enquiries will lead them both into danger and high adventure and bring them up against powerful, clandestine forces as the mystery of the lost army slowly unravels before them. Given the subject and the terrain, comparisons with Indiana Jones are unavoidable, in this case with a certain amount of justification as the heroes and villains of the tale are very much in the Indy mould. Paul Sussman is an archaeologist as well as a writer and it shows in his authentic depictions of the Egyptian landscape, new and old, and of the ancient artifact 'trade'. The novel is satisfyingly full of ruthless characters, murky tombs and tractless wastes, of difficult situations and impossible odds. It harks back to those high adventure stories of old where the opposition seemed overwhelming and time hopelessly short. With all resources exhausted and allies heartbreakingly eliminated, the heroes are on the very brink of defeat and yet never give up on that glimmer of hope, though the glimmer be as faint and elusive as a mirage. (Kirkus UK)

Crime Time
'Adrenaline-packed...combines all the elements of a truly great adventure story...superbly evocative, with a huge epic sweep'

Dr Barbara Mertz, archaeologist
'A tough, sometimes brutal, but always engrossing thriller. Sussman knows his Egypt, past and present, and has the gift of creating engaging heroes'

Customer Reviews

Egyptian detective, archaeological thriller
Paul Sussman's second Inspector Khalifa thriller, has a touch of Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt adventures, starting with a an age old mystery of the lost army of Cambyses, before coming up to date with aforesaid Inspector.

I like novels that are set outside the USA for a change, and the lead character, an Egyptian detective and respectful Muslim family man, gives it an interesting edge.

Reasonably well paced, history (archaeology) thriller. Good read.

Thumping good read
I really enjoyed this book, Paul Sussman convincingly creates the hot atmosphere, dust, noise and smells of North Africa. Also a convincing lead in Inspector Khalifa.
I tried this after suffering a Matthew Reilly 'thing' (I can't call that a book) and my relief to find an intelligent author with something to say and history to back it up with - brilliant.

Feeble string of cliches
The initial interesting idea about the solving of a legendary mystery is soon utterly wasted amid banal dialogue and every cliche of plot and character under the sun.

A mad fanatical fundamentalist leader with a weak spot, a sadistic German who falls into a quicksand when about to have his wicked way with the heroine who had just escaped rape and murder and then willingly agrees to return to the clutches of the villains, a lone superhero policeman, helicopters disgorging the forces of law and order in the nick of time, people shrieking: "I'll kill you for that, you bastard!" and "not that way, you fool!".....

I suggest re-classifying this onto the children's bookshelves.