Barbara S. (barbsis) - , reviewed on 7/18/2009 + 1076 more book reviews

This is a book with two stories going on which will eventually collide in unexpected ways. An Egyptologist, Ralph Trilipush, possibly a fraud, and his find of a lifetime (possibly a sham). Half of the book is Trilipush's journal entries which are boring as crap and mostly irrelevant to the story. These are mixed with letters to his fiancee, Margaret, in Boston and are just a waste of time. He is an arrogant ass and it is tedious to read these entries. Most of which I admit to skipping until around page 190 where they became the focus of the book and actually involved some digging in Egypt in search of the tomb of some king I'd never heard of and probably just made up for the story.

Detective, Harold Ferrell, is on the hunt for an Australian man, Paul Caldwell, who disappeared in 1918 while on campaign in Egypt. The detective is an old man in a nursing home so his parts are recollections of events 30 years in the past. Unfortunately, this involves lots of rambling letters written to a relative of Margaret's detailing his remembered (or made up) exploits.

After 383 pages of blah, blah, blah you'd expect the conclusion to at least conclude the mysteries. Well the mystery of the Australian is solved...if you use your intuition. However, the main mystery of the Egyptologist is very disappointingly left hanging. If the ending had been satisfying, I cuold have given this book two stars but as it was left, it barely even rates one star.

I forced myself to finish this book hoping it would live up to its praise which was printed in the front of the book - 5 pages worth. I must say that these must have been from university types who enjoy reading this dry as dirt and boring as hell crap. I honestly found this book to be a waste of time and not worth the paper it is printed on.

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