Archaeology in Fiction

The Alexander Cipher
Will Adams

In a welcome respite from the glut of Christendom-shattering, artifact- protecting, Secret Order thrillers, debut author Adams offers up something new. A cobbled-together team--a Greek archaeologist, her French assistant/language specialist, and quasi-corrupt Egyptian antiquities officials--finds a clue that, when deciphered, leads them to the real tomb of Alexander the Great. Here's the twist--the whole operation is funded by a wealthy Macedonian nationalist who will use Alexander's body to mobilize his compatriots to wage war against Greece for sovereignty. Rival archaeologist Daniel Knox is our misunderstood action hero and romantic lead in the style of Indiana Jones and Dirk Pitt, fractionally more skilled at eluding peril than becoming ensnared in it. Adams racks up a generous body count; some victims we have grown to like. The violence is graphic and the language at times coarse, though commensurate with the world of baksheesh, graft, and unchecked power depicted here. Not literature, but a plausible, fun heist- thriller that compels the reader to wonder, What if?
Library Jounal Review; February 2009.

The Bone Garden
Kate Ellis

Past and present come together in Detective Sergeant Wesley Peterson's latest case. In the course of restoring the gardens at historic Earlsacre Hall, three skeletons are uncovered. The bones appear to be centuries old, but they hold an interest for Peterson, whose degree is in archaeology. But despite the attraction of the skeletons, Peterson has more pressing concerns. A decomposing body with multiple stab wounds is found at a local campsite, and shortly afterward, the body of a local lawyer is discovered, his head bashed in by a cricket bat. Peterson's intuition tells him the two murders are connected, and he also suspects a link with Earlsacre, but he has no evidence to back up his hunches. Then his colleague, Detective Rachel Tracey, is kidnapped, drugged, and left for dead, and the intrepid Peterson has a more pressing reason to connect all the dots. Capable plotting, an absorbing story line, and a cast of appealing characters make this fifth entry in the Peterson series a good choice for British procedural fans.
Booklist Review; July 2003.

Findings
Mary Anna Evans

Archaeologist Faye Longchamp's friend, mentor, and father figure, Douglass Everett, is murdered the night that he and Faye realize that she has found a huge emerald in an archaeological dig on a site that once belonged to her family. The murderers miss the emerald but steal Faye's notes from the site. Then another friend is killed, and the danger becomes apparent to all. Faye's friends rally to protect her and Douglass's widow, but the situation involving greedy people who desecrate Confederate archaeological sites soon spins out of control. Evans always incorporates detailed research that adds depth and authenticity to her mysteries, and she beautifully conjurs up the Micco County, FL, setting. This is a series that deserves more attention than it garners. Fans of archaeological mysteries by Lyn Hamilton, Sarah Andrews, and Aaron Elkins will enjoy.
Library Journal Review; May 2008.

The Moon Tunnel
Jim Kelly

At the start of Kelly's superb third mystery to feature Cambridgeshire journalist Philip Dryden (after 2004's The Fire Baby), an archeological team discovers human remains in the remnants of what appears to have been an escape tunnel from a WWII-era POW camp in England's fen country. That the victim was shot heading toward the camp piques Philip's interest. When forensic evidence dates the victim's death to well after the war, Philip sets out to find the corpse's identity. His search leads to the local Italian community, academics at Cambridge University, the proprietress of a nearby landfill, and to his intellectual and emotional reawakening after a period of feeling half alive. Kelly excels at depicting landscapes (his descriptions of the marsh-like fens rival those of Dorothy L. Sayers) and also rendering eccentric and troubled characters. But what could easily have been a depressing story instead shows the underlying good to be found in most people, that compassion and generosity can motivate as much as lust or anger. Kelly has produced another story rich in plot and character, with a bit of history as well.
Publishers Weekly Review; September 2005.

Silence and Shadows
James Long

The ability to evoke both present-day and historical events, signaled in his praised Ferney, is evident in Long's new novel, again a mixture of contemporary and flashback scenes. Patrick Kane, aka notorious British rock star Paddy Kane, has retreated from his former celebrity life to repent the violent excesses on which his career was based, and the harm he did his late wife, Rachel. Having totally left the music world, he's now burying himself in archeology his first love in a dig-for-profit run by a corporation in the tiny village of Wytchlow. Profit is much more the company's concern than archeology, so Pat and his ragtag band of volunteers must try to preserve their integrity. Moreover, inexperienced Pat is feeling insecure about leading the dig, and his grief has been reawakened by the appearance of a young woman named Bobby Redhead who reminds him of Rachel. Rachel had a nearly mute brother, Joe, who communicates only through singing. After Joe appears in Wytchlow singing a ballad about a legendary red- haired Saxon princess called the German Queen, rumored to be buried there, the team discovers what may be her grave, arousing the interest of a TV crew, whose producer has secret plans to exploit Pat's unsavory past. Pat's resistance to sharing himself with others again is melting in the warmth of his circle of diggers, and he finds himself drawn to Bobby, whose resemblance to Rachel is echoed by her similarities to the tragic Saxon princess. Long does a fine job of juxtaposing modern scientific investigation with the mysteries of ancient history, especially the heyday of the Saxon tribes in Britain.
Publishers Weekly Review; February 2001.

Labyrinth
Kate Mosse

Mosse's epic adventure weaves together the present and the past in an entertaining Grail-quest tale. In the present, Alice Tanner, a volunteer at a French archaeological excavation, stumbles across the skeletal remains of two people in a cave, as well as a ring with an intricate labyrinth engraved on it. Her discovery attracts the attention of two unsavory figures: Paul Authie, a sinister police inspector, and Marie-Ceile de l'Oradore, a wealthy, powerful woman. When the ring that Alice discovered and the friend that invited her out on the dig both disappear, Alice begins to fear for her safety. Interlinked with Alice's story is that of 17-year-old Alais, newly married to a handsome chevalier and living in thirteenth-century Carcassonne. The threat of French invasion grows every day, but Alais and her father are more concerned with protecting three sacred books that reveal the secret of the Grail. The Crusaders want the books, but two people much closer to home are working against Alais and her father, desirous of the promise of eternal life that the Grail offers. Although the novel contains lulls in places, the medieval story is exciting.
Booklist Review; January 2006.

The Serpent on the Crown
Elizabeth Peters

Peters delivers another winner that you can't put down and yet don't want to see end, the 17th entry in her bestselling series to feature Egyptologist Amelia Peabody Emerson and her extended family (after 2004's Guardian of the Horizon). Early in 1922, novelist Magda Petherick, the widow of noted collector Pringle Petherick, interrupts the tea that the Emerson clan are enjoying on the veranda of their house by the Nile. Mrs. Petherick wants Emerson, Amelia's eminent archeologist husband, to dispose of a beautiful golden statuette that Pringle acquired shortly before his death because she believes it carries a curse. All are intrigued. News travels fast, and such a magnificent artifact soon attracts all manner of collectors, museum authorities, journalists and evildoers. Emerson's illegitimate half-brother, Sethos, formerly a dealer in illegal antiquities, arrives in disguise, but unfortunately he's followed by the gentleman he's impersonating. Tomb excavations, mountain treks, brutal attacks, an abduction, an exorcism and murder keep the plot hopping. The author's droll sense of humor and picture of a leisurely and less complicated age add to the appeal.
Publishers Weekly Review; March 2005.

Land of Marvels
Barry Unsworth

Well known for the widely acclaimed novel Sacred Hunger, which received the Booker Prize, and his well-crafted Morality Play, Unsworth here offers historical fiction at its best. It provides some insight into current political divisions in the Middle East as it explores the power and limitations of storytelling. While the publisher characterizes this novel as a thriller, and it certainly has a compelling plot, Unsworth exceeds the limitations of that genre by drawing characters with depth and complexity. As several Western countries do their best to exploit the looming prospect of war and potential oil reserves in 1914 Mesopotamia (now Iraq), a British archaeologist races against time to uncover the secrets of an Assyrian site before construction on the new railway flattens the site and his hopes for further expeditions. Consumed with worry, he doesn't realize who, among his growing party, has betrayed him, who is working undercover, and who is just lying.
Library Journal Review; October 2008.