The Deceit – Tom Knox

Rating:  Three Sandwiches out of five

I was very wary of picking up another Tom Knox title after ‘The Genesis Secret’.  This was not because I didn’t enjoy the novel; it was more to do with the fact that some of the violence and ritualistic murders were very gruesome and graphically described.  But the plot of ‘The Deceit’ sounded interesting, so I thought I would have another try.

‘The Deceit’ is a thriller set in Egypt and Cornwall where in two seemingly separate stories Egyptologist Ryan Harper joins the search for some priceless, ancient papyri known as the ‘Sokar documents’ and DI Karen Trevithick investigates an incident where cats are burned in a grisly, ancient ritual. The documents Ryan Harper is seeking were found on the corpse of his old tutor Victor Sassoon after he had deliberately walked out into the desert and hid in a cave until he died.  Dating from the time of the earliest Christians in Egypt, The Copts, what secrets did the documents contain that Sassoon felt were so important they remain hidden that he was prepared to die rather than they be found?

After recovering some of the documents, Harper finds himself on the run in Egypt with the attractive German filmmaker Helen Fassbinder, desperately trying to translate the obscure Coptic script in order to solve the mystery they contain. As he deciphers the clues, what is revealed leads them to Bubastis and the ancient underground necropolis of the mummified cats.  Violence soon erupts however, and they are taken prisoner by a small band of what appear to be mercenary soldiers.  But are they really there to save them and protect them as they say or do they really have more sinister motives?  Their quest takes them next to Luxor and then down to Aswan and the temple of Philae. But everywhere they turn they are faced with more attempts on their life and a mysterious illness.

Back in Cornwall the hideous ritual of the sacrifice of the cats is followed by the discovery of a body at the bottom of an old mine shaft.  CCTV footage shows that the young man apparently committed suicide, but what drove him to such a deed?  For DI Trevithick a disturbing encounter with a young woman who seemingly had been driven to psychosis by her exposure to these rituals puts her on the trail of a frightening young man, who is experimenting with dangerous ritual magic to achieve his ends.  But just how far will he go?

While the two stories are being told separately, the book is an interesting read, very fast paced and full of action.  The stories are intriguing and I found I wanted to read on to find out what would happen.  Also, importantly for me, although fairly gory, it was not nearly as bad as the ‘Genesis Secret’.  But  I found the huge secret that Victor Sassoon was prepared to die for rather than unleash on the world a bit of a damp squib; not something most religious folks would get that riled up about to be quite honest.  The book then changes tack bringing the two stories together back in Cornwall in rather an unbelievable way.  For me the ending was a disappointment and a bit fuzzy around the edges.

As most book review sites have a ratings system, I’ve decided to introduce the sandwich rating and from now on will rate books from one (awful book) to five (awesome book) sandwiches.  I’m going to award ‘The Deceit’ by Tom Knox Three Sandwiches.  It was an interesting, thrilling read, but it petered out a bit in the last third and I thought that the ending was a bit lame and unbelievable. I know that in this type of novel nothing is ever really believable, but the really good thrillers can carry you away and let you suspend your belief as you get immersed in the story.  This book, however, is not one of those, but is still worth having a read of.

The Genesis Secret - Tom Knox

Dan Brown has a lot to answer for, and like so many books in this genre, The Genesis Secret by Tom Knox opens with the discovery of an extremely violent and bloody ritualistic murder.  It almost seems that the authors are in some kind of competition to see who can think up the most revolting, slow and painful way to die.  So, you have been warned, this is not a novel for the squeamish.  Or you can do what I do, which is skim read the really nasty bits and try not to miss anything important to the story.

So here we go.  The Genesis Secret opens with the discovery of an extremely bizarre. ritualistic murder in Benjamin Franklin's house in London, which is now a museum.  It looks as though the caretaker disturbed a group of burglars digging in the cellar; but why the extreme violence? DCI Forrester has never seen a case like this, and it soon escalates as another body is found in the Isle Of Man that has been ritually murdered.

Meanwhile Rob Luttrell is sent to the arid wastelands of Turkey to write an archaeological piece on a mysterious site called Gobekli Tepe, the oldest temple ever excavated.  Gobekli Tepe is a haunted place, a massive stone temple that had been deliberately buried in tons of earth 8,000 years ago.  The question is why? As Luttrell digs a bit deeper to get a more interesting story, he becomes aware of tensions between the Kurdish workers and the archaeologists. Also the leader of the dig has been behaving oddly, digging alone in the middle of the night, keeping secrets from his staff.  When Breitner is killed in what could just be a nast accident or maybe murder, Luttrell joins forces with Christine, an attractive French archaeologist, to find out what secrets Breitner has been keeping that people considered important enough to kill for.

As the strange, ritual killings continue in England it becomes clear that the killers are looking for something. The life of Luttrell and his loved ones and the highly intelligent, but psychotic, leader of the gang become enmeshed after Luttrell publishes a piece in the paper on his amazing experiences and finding in Kurdistan.  Luttrell has uncovered a secret that the gang want to remain buried forever, and don't mind what they have to do to achieve their goal. The question is can Luttrell move quickly enough to protect Christine and his daughter from suffering the same fate as the gang's other victims. Can he get to the bottom of what has remained a secret for thousands of years? Leaving the police behind he returns to Turkey, following his own instincts and leads, but can he do enough to save his daughter and keep himself and Christine alive?

As to what to have for lunch when reading this book, you might find it best to read on an empty stomach.  Have a large glass of water handy or maybe a small glass of brandy.  The Genesis Secret is a good, pacy thriller, with lots of interesting historical facts thrown in.  But there are some very nasty murders, so to be avoided if you have a very vivid imagination!

The Rapture - Liz Jensen

An apocalyptic novel set in England a few years into the future, The Rapture by Liz Jensen tracks the story of Gabrielle Fox as she moves into her new life after being paralysed from the waist down in a tragic car accident.  A psychologist by trade, she moves to a small town on the South Coast to try and rebuild her career.
 
Gabrielle is assigned to the case of Bethany Krall, a very troubled teenager who killed her own mother by stabbing her in the eye and who gets a kick out of her electro-convulsive therapy.  Bethany's previous therapist left suddenly and her case notes are unaccountably missing.
 
Gabrielle finds that Bethany believes that she can predict various natural disasters that are happening around the world, and after a devastating hurricane and a killer earthquake happen on the dates and in the locations that Bethany prophesied, Gabrielle starts to feel uneasy and finds that she has trouble dismissing them as coincidences.
 
Gabrielle is also having to come to terms with her own emotional life after she meets the physicist Frazer Melville at a charity event.  Her married lover had been killed in the car accident that had taken the use of Gabrielle's legs and she had also lost her unborn child.  She had come to believe that she would never again have a physical and loving relationship with a man and has to battle with her own insecurities and lack of self-belief as enters into a relationship with Frazer.
 
With Britain caught in a 'Faith Wave' due to the ravages of global warming and food shortages and many people predicting that the end times had started, Gabrielle tries to untangle Bethany's past as a child of a preacher and get her to open up about what had happened to her mother.  But Bethany's visions seem to become more powerful after each course of ECT and she starts to predict the 'big' one, where floods and lakes of fire will engulf large parts of the country.
 
Gabrielle and Frazer start to try and convince the world of science that the world is in danger, but as the story draws to a dramatic climax, is Bethany manipulating them more than they realise?  How much does she really know about what is going to happen, and how much depends on her need for revenge on her father?
 
Not a long novel, but it packs in a lot of ideas on potential environmental disasters, religion, love and insanity.  A good thriller, but a depressing world view, so you'll need some comfort food like sausages, mash and beans with a large glass of wine!

The Sign - Raymond Khoury

The Sign by Raymond Khoury is a fast moving thriller where the action moves from Antarctica to Egypt and then on to the United States. Gracie Logan is an up and coming journalist whose news team is investigating the splitting off of huge pieces of ice from cliffs of the Antarctic when they are the first to witness 'The Sign'; an amazing display of lights that moved, shimmered and changed before disappearing as mysteriously as it arrived. Is 'The Sign' a natural occurrence, has it been sent from aliens or is it a sign from God that all is not well with the planet? Not sure what to make of this amazing phenomenon, Gracie receives a call inviting them to Egypt, where an old priest who has been living as a recluse in a cave has been drawing the very same sign on the walls of the cave for several months.

As the world is whipped into a frenzy by what is meant by 'The Sign', Gracie and her team travel to Egypt to meet with the saintly Father Jerome. But the appearance of another sign over the arctic and then over the head of Father Jerome on the roof of the monastery makes it very dangerous for them to stay at the ancient Coptic monastery as a large mob gathers outside the walls. They need to get Father Jerome away to safety; somewhere where his presence will not trigger religious riots and he will be safe.

Meanwhile back in the United States Matt Sherwood learns that his beloved brother Danny might not be dead after all, and that he might still be being held captive somewhere. On a crusade to find the truth and his brother, he realises that he has gotten on the wrong side of some very powerful people. He has to go on the run after he was set up as the murderer of one of his brother's associates, and teams up with another of his brother's old friends, Jabba, after saving his life from the thugs who are after them.

As Gracie starts to realise that all is not as it seems regarding Father Jerome and 'The Sign' and Matt begins to work out what Danny was working on and which powerful people he is dealing with the danger both for them and the world grows. They learn that a dream of idealism to create a better, greener world has been hi-jacked for the sake of personal power and that it is beginning to unfold and unravel.

A thriller based on one man's desire to save the world and shock it into a cleaner, greener way of living. Matt Sherwood is an all-action hero; a one-time bad boy come good. His physical prowess and ability to take out large amounts of armed, trained men strained my credulity at times, but it is rollicking, fast-moving story. And I don't think you need me to tell you where the love interest happens! Fix an organic avocado and prawn salad and sip a nice glass of organic white wine with this one!

The Nostradamus Prophecies - Mario Reading

The Nostradamus Prophecies by Mario Reading is based on the surmise that Nostradamus wrote a thousand prophecies but that only 942 have survived to the present day. The action starts when a gypsy named Babel Samana is trying to raise money by selling a manuscript containing missing verses of Nostradamus; the problem he has is that he doesn't actually have the manuscript but only some clues as to its whereabouts. Unfortunately for Babel one of the prospective buyers that he attracted was Achor Bale, a man who is a member of a secret society that is sworn to support the 'Three Antichrists' predicted by Nostradamus - Napoleon, Hitler and one still to come. And Achor Bale is also a cruel, ruthless man who will kill and torture mercilessly to achieve his objectives.

The other bidder is American writer, Adam Sabir who is just looking for a boost to his writing career. Samana entangles Sabir by binding him by blood in a cafe and giving him a couple of clues, before he meets his grisly end at the hands of Bale.

Sabir suddenly finds himself on the run, suspected of the murder of Samana, and following the clues he finds himself entwined in the lives of the gypsies, as the blood brother and new protector of the fiery Yola and her cousin Alexi. The trio must then try to interpret the clues they find and follow the trail to the missing Nostradamus prophecies, always trying to outwit the merciless, indefatigable Bale, and stay one step ahead of the police in the form of Calque and Macron.

Sabir has to immerse himself in gypsy cultures and learn their customs and their history to survive. The plot is very fast moving and moves through France and Spain, and is fairly violent, courtesy of the merciless Achor Bale.

Will Sabir and the gypsies manage to stay one step ahead of Bale, or will they suffer the same painful fate as Babel? Good read for the plane or by a pool - try a white wine spritzer and a ham salad on white!

The Last Oracle - James Rollins

Another outing for Gray Pierce and Sigma Force! Gray is dumbfounded when on the threshold of Sigma an old tramp is shot and thrusts an ancient coin into his hand. This coin bears the images from the ancient Oracle of Delphi, but what is it's meaning?

The old man is identified as a missing scientist and his body is for some reason incredibly radio active. So where had he been and what was he doing? Meanwhile an old man and an autistic child called Sasha appear in Washington, and the child's kidnapping causes panic for the old man.

Who is this autistic child? Why does she have a mysterious metal plate in her skull and what is the origin of her amazing talent. The trail leads to India and an old city created by the Ancient Greeks who fled from Delphi with a very precious cargo. It leads back to the Romany communities in Eastern Europe and a secret violation hidden since the Second World War.

So who are the bio-engineered children living in a giant cavern in the radio-active regions around Chernobyl? Who created them and for what purpose?

Only one man and a truly remarkable chimpanzee can help the children and save the world from a horrific fate. Can Sigma get to them fast enough, when a secret group in the US called the Jasons have attacked Sigma HQ and are threatening to destroy them?

Very fast paced with lots of action - it made me tired as I was reading it! An interesting plot and engaging characters. If you like chimpanzees (and who doesn't!), you will fall in love with Marta and her human child companion Pyotr. Have some tissues ready!

You will need lots of carbs to keep up with this one - a good doorstep cheese and tomato sandwich with a pint of cider ought to do it!

The Watchman - Robert Crais

I have never read any of Robert Crais's books before, but I really enjoyed 'The Watchman'. Set in the broiling heat of Los Angeles, Joe Pike must accept a job as a bodyguard to a young, spoilt rich girl in return for help he had been given many years ago. His job is to keep Larkin Barkley alive, after she was involved in an accident in her car and saw somebody who did not want to be be seen or identified.

Keeping her safe might be the hardest job that Joe Pike has ever had to undertake, as whoever is searching for the girl seems to know where their secret location is everytime. Realising that he can trust nobody, not even the cops or FBI agents, he flees with Larkin and enlists the help of his old friend and colleague Elvis Cole. Joe realises that the only true way of buying Larkin's safety is turning hunter and finding his way through the maze of lies to find out why she is being targetted and who is the puppet master behind it all. In a race against time, where even Larkin's own father is telling lies and can't be trusted, can Joe Pike and Elvis Cole discover the truth and kill before they are all killed?

Action packed with a high body count, I think this is one the boys will like. Order a pint of bitter and some chips!