A unique thriller about a magical stone, the ability to time travel, and a fight to keep one man’s greedy hands away from the ultimate power grab
When the Pharoah is gifted a small, green stone, his advisor, Imhotep, notices something peculiar: the stone has magical powers. Wanting to learn more about the stone’s magic while also keeping himself out of harm’s way, Imhotep enlists a leader from the Eldishé tribe “to start human trials after many months with no answers to the questions posed by the ancient green stone, which made things vanish.”
Flash forward to the early 2000s, and a researcher named Angelique La Touché hopes to learn more about the Eldishé people, as they suddenly vanished from historical records in the 12th century. With a grant from her university, Angelique journeys to the last known location of the tribe and speaks to the local villagers.
There, she uncovers valuable—and dangerous—information, rumors about a man named Ja Metza: “A man, or some say deity, appeared out of nowhere, killing everyone in the village and taking the chief ’s daughter, along with the village’s sacred stone.”
Angelique wants to know more, and as she searches, she stumbles into a cave with ancient paintings. She runs to find her research companion to show him her find, yet when she arrives there again, the ancient cave paintings have changed. It’s then she realizes that she’s uncovered the impossible reality of time travel—a dangerous secret that consumes her until her death.
At Angelique’s funeral, her daughter, Setrina, sits fuming, frustrated by her distant mother who was never around during her childhood. Begrudgingly, Setrina attends the meeting where she is given her mother’s will; in the will is a word puzzle, one that she instantly realizes she needs to decipher to find out her mother’s lifelong secret.
With the help of her friend, Jack Spetza, a former SAS operative with skilled intuition, Setrina sets off to uncover her mother’s secret. Very soon, they realize the danger they’re in, and that quite possibly, the wealthiest, most powerful man on the planet wants the stone and would do anything, including murder, to get his hands on it.
This is a fun-filled thriller rich with history and magic. Humor sprinkles the plot as well, with witty punches throughout, such as: “Being a sanctioned killer with a drug habit was like a good kill—you needed a good pill.” The definitions for the Australian lingo are a great touch as well.
However, the plot is hard to follow at times as the narrator’s voice switches between characters without much warning, especially Setrina’s and Jack’s. Moreover, while Imhotep’s and Jack’s characters develop throughout the novel in an easy-to-follow, engaging manner, Setrina’s is lacking. The plot follows Angelique at the very beginning, which makes the reader think the narrative will naturally follow Setrina from then on, but the plot switches to mostly Jack’s journey as he combats the bad guys. Setrina feels set aside, and the narrative in turn lacks the balance her perspective would have provided.
Even then, the inclusions of the magical stone and time travel are enough to keep the pages turning. The entire novel feels like a puzzle that buzzes with extra pizzazz. The combat scenes mixed in with romance between Setrina and Jack makes the story hopeful and exciting too. This is a good, fun debut that has real series potential.
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