Sphinx by T.S Learner

Sphinx by T.S Learner
Read: March 2010

This book inspired an article in the Grauniad Travel section about the sites in Alexandria. We were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves as we've done most of those mentioned in the paper. There was a competition, which we entered, but didn't win (to get tickets from London to Cairo), but we thought we should go and buy the book to see what the hype was about - if the Grauniad like a book this much, surely it's good?
Sadly not. It was OK, but nothing special. It was likened to The Da Vinci Code but for Egypt and I can see where this has come from as the central character is running around the country trying to solve a mystery. It is rather like the Da Vinci Code in that an artifact is discovered, everyone wants it and one man is trying to solve it. Instead of clues in paintings and museums though, the clues are around Alexandria and ancient Egyptian texts.
For me the most interesting parts of the book are in the early section to do with scuba diving (the protagonists wife discovers said artifact on a dive), and the city of Aexandria in the 1970's...which is not so different from the Alexandria we know.
The story moves at a pace enough, but the ending is dissapointing; wrapping up the story in a mysticism that was unsolvable earlier on.
Never-the-less this books has unwittingly started our collection of Egypt/North Africa/Middle Eastern-based fiction. We're not being fussy about quality (although maybe we should be), but will now pick up books in charity stores that fall along our theme.