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Lost Relics, Codes & Mysteries
The Last Testament by Sam Bourne
During the second Gulf war an Iraqi boy steals an ancient clay tablet from a vault in the Baqhdad Museum. The clay tablet passes through many hands until it’s true significance is realised and then people start to die. In Tel Aviv several years later a historic deal is about to be signed and at a rally to mark the forthcoming occasion, a man judged to be an assassin is shot dead. He has no gun however, only a blood-stained note clutched in his hand. A series of seemingly random tit-for-tat killings follows as tensions mount and reach boiling point. Maggie Costello, a star peace negotiator is sent by Washington to try and resolve matters and save what could be a real chance for peace in the Middle East. Maggie soon finds that the killing are not as random as they first appear. Someone is killing archaeologists and historians, people who might know what secret the clay tablet holds. Soon she too is in danger and a race ensues to unravel the mystery which has its roots in the Bible.
The Secret Of The Temple by Paul Sussman
Inspector Yusuf Khalifa of the Luxor Police was introduced to readers in Paul Sussman’s previous novel ‘The Lost Army OF Cambyses’(see Boris’ Review). The body of Piet Jansen is found amongst the ruins of Malqata an archaeological site and sets Khalifa on a ages old trail leading back to Roman times and the fall of Jerusalem to the Legions. Khalifa eventually finds himself working with an Israeli detective and both of them find their long held beliefs challenged as they both search for the key to the mystery, an extraordinary long-lost artefact which could if it fell into the wrong hand, plunge the Middle east into bloody conflict on a scale not seen before. An excellent novel that Boris didn’t want to put down.
The Lost Army of Cambyses by Paul Sussman
Inspector Yusuf Khalifa of the Luxor Police finds himself investigating three murders, a small time crook whose mutilated body is washed up on the banks of the Nile at Luxor, an antiques dealer murdered in Cairo and a British archaeologist found murdered at the Saqqara necropolis. All the incidents at first appear unconnected, but Khalifa and Tara Mullray are not convinced and a search for the truth leads to clues which set them on a trail into the desert and the possible answer to one of antiquities’ greatest mysteries of what became of the Persian Pharaoh Cambyses’ army sent to destroy the oracle of Siwa in 523BC. Both Khalifa and Tara face ghosts and demons from the past and a particularly odious and sinister villain they come up against places both their lives in deadly danger.
If you like crime thrillers with an archaeological background Boris can highly recommend both of Paul Sussman’s novels. He can’t wait for the next one!! Boris
Sign of the Cross by Chris Kuzneski
In Denmark on the shores below ‘Hamlet’s castle’, Interpol agent Nick Dial, is investigating the murder of a Vatican priest, found nailed to a cross. This is only the first victim however and others quickly follow, each horrific murder exactly mirroring Christ’s crucifixion. Meanwhile, in Italy in the Roman catacombs of Orvieto, archaeologist Dr Charles Boyd and his attractive young assistant Maria Pelati are on the verge of the discovery of a secret that will rock the world. In Pamplona, Payne & Jones, two former soldiers of an elite counterinsurgency team are languishing in jail until a sinister stranger offers them a ‘get out of jail’ card if they will track down Boyd who has gone missing. What links the crucifixions with the secret Boyd and Maria and will they live long enough to unravel the truth?
Boris thought that this book was much more exciting than ‘The Da Vinci Code’ Boris
Codex by Lev Grossman
Edward Wozny, a young hot shot banker finds himself sent to help one of his firms most important and mysterious clients. His initial indignation at being asked to unearth and catalogue the English aristocratic family’s personal library, turns to intrigue however, when he realises that an unique medieval codex may be hidden among the books sent to the USA shortly before the second world war. Edward’s quest to find the codex becomes obsessive and deepens when his ex-college buddy Zeph introduces him to a peculiar and addictive computer game.Very soon strange parallels begin to emerge between the legend of the codex and the game’s virtual reality.
The Medici Secret by Michael White
Edie Granger, a paleopathologist and her uncle, Carlin MacKenzie have been given permission to examine the mummified remains of the Medici family, one of the most powerful families in Rennaissance Italy. Whilst examining the body of Cosimo de Medici they make a fantastic discovery, finding an alien object resting against his spine which they cannot explain. Soon afterwards, Carlin is brutally murdered shortly after discovering what the alien object was. Meanwhile, Jeff Martin, Edie’s best friend receives a visit from the former warden of the Medici Chapel who shows him a photograph of another mysterious object found there and also tells him of threats he received after its discovery. Soon Edie and Jeff find themselves in a quest for the truth, which places them in terrible danger if the conspiracy of silence they discover is to be broken.
The Eight by Katherine Neville
For Centuries the nuns of Montglane Abbey have guarded a secret from those who would abuse its power and use it for their own ends. Buried for a thousand years within the walls of their Abbey is a mystical chess set once owned by the Emperor Charlemagne and given to him by eight mysterious moors. Revolution has come to France however and the nuns are forced to unearth the Montglane chess set and scatter its pieces across the globe. Embedded in each piece of the chess set is a code and whoever reassembles the pieces can play a game of unlimited power too terrible to imagine. Two young novices are among the protectors of the chess pieces and soon face deadly danger as Robespierre, Czarina Catherine of Russia and a young soldier named Napoleon Bonaparte search for the chess set. Centuries later in 1973, another young woman is chosen to join those protecting the missing pieces of the Montglane chess set and she too faces danger as she tries to deduce the answer to one of the greatest riddles of the ages.
Boris found the two interlinked tales, one set in the ‘Terror’ of 18th Century Revolutionary France and the other set in the USA & Algeria of the 1970s one of the best in the genre he has read. Boris
The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry
WhenFormer covert U.S. Justice Department agent Cotton Malone comes up against the Knights Templar who rather than being destroyed by Philip IV of France in 1307 went underground basing themselves in a monastery in the French Pyrenees. The Templars are searching for the Great Devise lost centuries ago which which if found and revealed could destroy the very foundations of Christianity. Stephanie Nelle, Cotton’s former boss has received her dead ex-husbands journal which sets her on the trail for the Templars’ fabulous treasures of which the Great Devise is only a part. When her life is threatened in Copenhagen, Cotton comes to her aid and soon both of them are trying to solve a series of centuries old puzzles which leads them into great danger.
The Magdalene Cipher by Jim Hougan
Jim Hougan is half of the husband and wife team, who write under the pseudonym of John Case and if you’ve ever read any of their books, you’ll know they write excellent thrillers. This is no exception and was first published in the US under the title ‘ Kingdom Come’ in 2000. In the story, CIA agent Jack Dunphy uncovers an ancient conspiracy, when he becomes embroiled in a plot to change the very course of history. Soon on the run from his own organisation, Dunphy and his girlfriend Clem face terrible danger as they try to uncover the shocking truth. Boris couldn’t put the book down until he’d read the last page, which as you can imagine got him into trouble with Mrs B again!
The First Horseman by John Case
Reporter Frank Daly is asked by scientists Annie Adair & Dr Kicklighter to accompany them on an expedition to the Arctic Circle, to exhume victims of the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic. The scientists hope to carry out a study of the deadly virus and find a cure for it. Meantime on the other side of the world a refugee from North Korea tells of how his village was razed to the ground by the military, after it had been devastated by a mysterious disease. The expedition after a stormy passage finally arrives at the icy wastes of Kopervik, but finds to its dismay that someone else has beaten them to it and taken the flu victims bodies from their frozen graves. Events soon take a sinister turn when sporadic outbreaks of influenza occur randomly in the USA and both Frank Daly and Annie Adair’s lives are threatened by the Temple of Light, a cult led by the charismatic Luc Solange who has links with North Korea. Frank and Annie finds themselves in deadly danger as they race to stop a deadly virus from being released, which could wipe out billions and threaten the very existence of mankind.
The Covenant of Genesis by Andy McDermott
When Archaeologist Nina Wilde discovers evidence of a settlement that existed over 100,000 years before any previously known culture, she does not realise the dangers that she & her fiance Eddie Chase are getting themselves into. Before she can even further consider the evidence discovered at the underwater site, her research boat is attacked, her crew murdered and the proof of the settlement’s existence taken. Readers of Nina & Eddie’s previous adventures will know that a minor set back like this will not deter them from trying to solve the mystery of who wanted the discovery suppressed. Before long they learn that an organisation called the Covenant of Genesis is behind the attack and that the organisation has representatives from the three Abrahamic religions and will stop at nothing to suppress anything that challenges the creation mythology that they share.
Action packed fast paced thriller! Boris
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The Lost Throne by Chris Kuzneski
Boris has thoroughly enjoyed each of the novels based on the adventures of ex-special force operatives Jonathan Payne & David Jones and Nick Dial, Head of Interpol’s Homicide Division. This time Nick Dial is investigating the murders of the monks of a cliff-top monastery in Greece who have been thrown to their deaths on the rocks below. Meantime, Jonathan Payne has received a number of calls from a cell phone number he doesn’t recognize. On checking the number out he finally reaches Allison Taylor, a Stanford doctoral student whose former temporary employer has been murdered. She too is in deadly danger and being the gents they both are they go to her rescue. Soon Payne & Jones find themselves on the trail of a lost treasure and find themselves up against a sect basing themselves upon an elite group of ancient warriors, who will stop at nothing to reach the treasure before anyone else.
The Genesis Code by John Case
When Kathy Lassiter and her young son Brandon are brutally murdered, her brother Joe Lassiter, owner of a private investigation company with offices worldwide decides to investigate their murders. He soon discovers that there have been other murders of mothers and their sons in similar circumstances and that there are links with a fertility clinic in Italy, run by Dr Baresi, a renowned theologian & geneticist. Why is Joe’s life threatened by the sinister Umbra Domini, an ultra-Catholic organisation and what is the secret so unthinkable that powerful men will kill to protect it?
John Case writes a brilliant thriller and the one’s featured here are no exception Boris
The Charlemagne Pursuit By Steve Berry
Cotton Malone, Steve Berry’s ex-special agent hero is on a mission to find out what really happened to his father, officially lost at sea when his submarine went down in the north Atlantic nearly 40 years ago. When Cotton calls in a favour from his former boss Stephanie Nelle, he quickly discovers that there are others who are also anxious to learn about the submarine’s loss. Finding himself in the middle of a power struggle between mysterious twin sisters, Dorothea Lindauer and Christl Falk, Malone is soon following cryptic clues connected with the legendary Charlemagne finds himself on a journey that will take him to the icy wastes on Antarctica.
Steve Berry has written a great thriller which kept Boris entertained. Boris