The Tomb of Zeus - Book Review

The Tomb of Zeus
by Barbara Cleverly
Bantam Dell/Random House 2007








Set in Heraklion, Crete in 1928, this is Laetitia Talbot's first job as a newly minted archaelogist. Just off the plane from London to Athens, Laetitia meets Charles St George Russell on the boat to Crete while she is dealing with a bout of sea-sickness. It turns out that it had been arranged for Laetitia (aka Letty) to stay with George's family as his father is the renowned archaeologist Theodore Russell.


Once back on land in Heraklion, Letty's seasickness subsides and she is driven (in George's Bugatti) to the Russell Villa. At dinner she mets her ex-beau William Gunning who left London rather suddenly the previous year with no explanation. Also at the first dinner Letty meets George's stepmother Phoebe. Letty cannot explain it, but the villa and the Russell family are unnerving. She feels something bad amongst these 3 family members.


A week after Letty's arrival, Phoebe takes her on a picnic and a tour of the Knossos site that had recently been discovered by Arthur Evans. Two of Phoebe's friends show up - Dr Harold Stoddart and his wife Olivia. After the picnic Phoebe collapses and is taken home by Dr Stoddart. Olivia and Letty cycle home.

By the time Letty gets home, she discovers Phoebe is dead - hanging by a noose in her closet. Naturally the family are called as are the police. Inspector Mariani opens an investigation.

The following week, Theo Russell gives Letty a small site to dig up on the slopes of Mount Juktas and sends her off. William Gunning goes along to help and there is also a small experienced team of local men who will do the digging.

The inquest into Phoebe's death determines that she committed suicide. Letty and William are sure that Phoebe did not kill herself. So they set about doing their own investigation. Along the way Letty's bad feelings towards William's abrupt departure from London the previous year, are dealt with and they fall in love.

On the dig, they find a Minoan tomb - Theo Russell is quite desperate for an exciting find. He thinks it is the legendary Tomb of Zeus and plans to write it up and claim the find as his. On further investigation by Letty and William, the body in the tomb is female and a second body they find stuffed into a box is male but of a young boy, not that of Zeus. The speculation is that they are of Aphrodite and Adonis.

The mystery surrounding the Russell family, as well as Phoebe's death, are also cleared up with surprising results.

I really enjoyed this book for the wonderful details it gave of life in Crete in the 1920s. The old fashioned customs of the people of Crete versus the 1920s "modern" thinking of the British.

The Last Testament - Book Review

The Last Testament
by Sam Bourne
Harper Collins 2009 (USA & Canada)
First published in UK - 2007

SPOILERS!!!!

SPOILERS!!!!!

This novel is also set in Israel but this one is MUCH more realistic. It involves both Israelis and Palestians working together and shooting each other to find the truth.

After the US illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Baghdad Museum of Antiqities was looted and a large number of important artifacts were stolen. This novel is about one small clay tablet that was stolen. This small clay tablet is probably imaginery just for this story.

Anyway the tablet is smuggled to UK and then smuggled back to Israel. Artifacts currently missing from Iraq are hot (stolen) and are not permitted to be sold. They must be sent back to Iraq.

Maggie Costello, a UN peace negotiator, is called in to try and calm the two sides as the killings increase. As Maggie is sucked into the search for this tablet, local archaeologists around her are killed - both palestinian and jewish. The tablet was hidden by a jewish archaelogist who is killed in the first chapter. Maggie and his son are left to follow his clues to find the tablet's hiding place before they are killed by the extremists who do not want the tablet to see the light of day.

What is the importance of this tablet? It was written in cuneiform writing - the language of the sumerians. It mentions three names - Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael.

It is effectively the last will and testament of Abraham - the founder of the 3 religions of the Book. He notes that his sons are fighting over their home and so he gifts Mount Moriah to the children of Isaac and Ishmael to be shared equally by all the descendents.

This is explosive news because Jerusalem is built on Mount Moriah. Isaac was the father of the Jews and Ishmael was the father of the Arabs. They must now find a way to share their home and stop fighting over it.

The last scene in this book is the leader of the PLO and the Prime Minister of Isarel in a room with one negotiator - Maggie Costello.

The Lost Gospel - Book Review

The Last Gospel (UK)
The Lost Tomb (USA)
By David Gibbins
Headline Publishing 2008

In May 2008 I posted about David Gibbins two earlier books. At the end of the post I mentioned that the new book was to be about the search for the Tomb of Alexander the Great. I have rechecked the book and have confirmed that while it does mention Alexander the Great, it is not in connection with a tomb.

So when I spotted The Last Gospel on the new books shelf at the library, I grabbed it. Once again Jack Howard and his sidekick Costas Kazantzakis are on the trail for some hidden and lost detail of history.

This time we find Jack and Costas in a boat off the southern coast of Sicily where the find the boat that St Paul was on when he was shipwrecked. Melita in the original was translated as Malta, but Jack's theory was that the prevailing winds would not have carried the boat from Cyprus all the way to Malta. They would have to come up against Sicily instead.

While diving on the sea bed, the two fo them come across a first century ship that has proof that St Paul was on board when it sunk.

After this discovery they get called to Herculaneum in Italy. Herculaneum is an ancient city in Naples Bay on the lower slopes of Mt Vesuvuius. The city was buried in Ad 79 when Mt Vesuvius erupted. The other city that was buried was the much more well known Pompeii. BUT Herculaneum has the real treasures. The Villa of the Papyri has hundrs of scrolls that were partially burnt and then preserved for 2000 years. Archaelologists hope to be able to save these papyrus scrolls or at least read them before they disentegrate into dust.

Jack and Howard are able to explore a small unknown tunnel in the ruins. At the en dof this tunnel they discover a room that managed to escape the fiery pyroclastic lava that rolled down from the volcano.

Next stop is Rome and the tunnels that honey comb the ground underneath palatine hil. Jack and Costas go spelunking.

Next stop London - St Lawrence Jewry specifically. Here they find the Deverette (Everett) family. In the 1600's a Frenchman named Deverette was exploring the undergroubd tunnels under the Jewry and found something. He kept it safe in his family. The descendents were still looking after this item in the early 1900s when one of the Everett descendents took this item with him to California.

In California Jack and Costas find the Everett home and follow the clues. Those clues lead Jack and Costas to Jerusalem and the church of the Holy Sepulchre.

While this books was exciting with our heros dashing all over the place, the ending was a bit of a let down. There was several mentions of tombs, but I couldnt tell who's tomb was discovered at the end. St Paul's tomb or the tomb of Jesus.

As for the last gospel - You'll have to read this book to know if Jack and Costas found that.

Crusader Gold - Book Review

Crusader Gold
By David Gibbins
Headline Publishing 2006
Website

I have been a fan of Clive Cussler's Books, starring Dirk Pitt, for over 20 years. I have also been a fan of Indiana Jones for over 20 years as well. And just recently I found a new underwater archaeologist who is as good as (if not better than) Indiana and Dirk.


His name is Jack Howard, and he runs the IMU - International Maritime University based in Cornwall, England. I think I have found the new Indiana Jones. Jack Howard is the new Man of the Hour, in my book anyway.

In Crusader Gold, (the second book in the series) Jack and his team are on the trail of the Treasure from the Temple of Jerusalem. The temple treasures that were lost after the Romans conqured Judea in 70 CE and when the disapora began.

Jack tracks the treasure to Rome, and then to Constantinople when Rome fell. In 1204 Constantiniople was sacked and looted by crusaders. Jack's theory was that the looting was lead by the Varangians. Varangians were Norse mercenaries, from Scandinavia. The Norse founded the city of Kiev in Rus (Modern Russia), and it was not that far for them to travel down the Volga river to the Black Sea and end up in Constantinople. So Jack follows the Varangians back to the north. But instead of going east to Scandinavia, they went west to Iceland, Greenland, and even to the New world - L'anse Aux Meadows in Newfoundland. The trail then leads south and where the Varangians and the treasure end up is a new twist on history.


Last year I picked up the first book in this series. It's called Atlantis. In this novel, Jack and his team discover the true location of Atlantis. According to the Phaistos Disk. I wont say anymore, other than I really enjoyed this book.

At the end of Crusader Gold, Jack makes a decison on what the team will be looking for next. This is one of my favourite mysteries of all time - because it has not yet been found. The Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great. The Lost Tomb by David Gribbin is due out in September 2008.


L'anse Aux Meadows 2
L'anse Aux Meadows 3 - wikipedia
L'anse Aux Meadows 4