Whenever I feel the need for some literary comfort food my first instinct is to grab a mystery or crime thriller. I think it’s the combination of thrills with puzzle-solving that appeals to me. The title of this paperback. The Pharaoh Key, jumped out at me because it not only promised a mystery, but it combined another one of my interests, ancient Egypt. I have read some other books by this author team, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, featuring their investigator Agent Prendergast, so I thought I’d give this a try. It is apparently part of a series featuring Indiana Jones-ish adventurer Gideon Crew, who has just been given a terminal diagnosis: he has a very rare, incurable disease and only has a few months left to live. This is presented in the first few paragraphs, by the way, so I’m not giving anything away. With not much to lose, Crew decides to embark on the adventure of a (very short) lifetime – to go to Egypt and discover the Phaistos Disc, which is rumored to be the key to ancient civilization. Well, wouldn’t you?
The whole thing is preposterous, but it moves quickly and was a perfect, brainless adventure. I can’t say that it spurred me to read any previous or future (assuming there will be future) adventures of Mr. Crew and company. The Egyptian part of the story was pretty silly too, apart from an action-filled boat ride on the Nile. I think if I try any of these authors’ books in the future it will be Preston’s non-fiction The Monster of Florence, which is sitting in my enormous to-read pile.
You can read more of my reviews on my blog, xoxoxo e
