(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

In the shifting desert sands of Egypt, rumours abound of a lost papyrus that will reveal the true purpose of the Pyramids of Giza. Could these ancient monoliths be the source of a new kind of energy, one that comes at no cost to the planet? CIA agent Curtis O'Connor and archaeologist Aleta Weizman are determined to find out.
Close by, a shadowy and powerful group known as Pharos meets in Alexandria, its membership a closely guarded secret. Its first order of business: to orchestrate chaos on international financial markets with a series of spectacular terrorist attacks on the world's fossil-fuel supplies.
And in Cairo, amid the anarchy of Tahrir Square, thieves have broken into the famed Museum of Antiquities and stolen one of the world's priceless artifacts: the mask of Tutankhamun. Is the audacious theft linked to the Pharos Group?

This is the 4th book in the Curtis O'Connor series of action/thriller novels. I have read a few of the earlier ones.

There is a very fine line in these historically based thrillers - either they seem to be too heavy on the history and forget about the action/suspense side of things or they go the other way and are a bit flimsy on the history and too heavy on the thrills. This one seems to fall into the latter category.

This story seemed to focus more on the espionage side of things - a la Robert Ludlum (which isn't a bad thing on its own) - and the history of the artifacts etc seemed to be a casual mention, not getting too deep and allowed the action to take its place. Like I said, that's not terribly bad but I was really hoping for a better look at the historical elements.

The best thing about this story is the Egyptian connection. I loved reading about that and the possible reasons for the pyramids. I think there was a lot of clever theories involved that really made me think and want to know more.

The downside was the "terrorism" angle - it seemed tenuous to the overall history but, in the authors defence, I think he did pull all of the elements together to create a very good thriller novel.

Just wished for a little more of the history...


Paul
ARH