"The Lost Army of Cambyses" - In 523 BC, the Persian emperor Cambyses dispatched an army across Egypt's western desert to destroy the oracle of Amun at Siwa. Legend has it that somewhere in the middle of the Great Sand Sea his army was overwhelmed by a sandstorm and destroyed. Fifty thousand men were lost. Two and a half thousand years later a mutilated corpse is washed up on the banks of the Nile at Luxor, an antiques dealer is savagely murdered in Cairo, and an eminent British archaeologist is found dead at the ancient necropolis of Saqqara. At first the incidents appear unconnected. Inspector Yusuf Khalifa of the Luxor police is suspicious, however. And so too is the archaeologist's daughter, Tara Mullray. As each seeks to uncover the truth, they find themselves thrown together in a desperate race for survival - one that forces them to confront not only present-day adversaries but also ghosts from their own pasts.
From a mysterious fragment of ancient hieroglyphic text to rumours of a fabulous lost tomb in the Theban Hills, from the shimmering waters of the Nile to the dusty backstreets of Cairo, Khalifa and Mullray are drawn ever deeper into a labyrinth of violence, intrigue and betrayal. It is a path that will eventually lead them into the forbidding, barren heart of the western desert, and the answer to one of the greatest mysteries of the ancient world...At once an adrenaline-packed thriller and a wonderfully evocative archaeological adventure, "The Lost Army of Cambyses" marks the debut of a great new storyteller. "The Last Secret of the Temple" - In Jerusalem, 70 AD, as the legions of Rome besiege the Holy Temple, a boy is given a secret that he must guard with his life. Southern Germany, December 1944. Six emaciated prisoners drag a mysterious crate deep into a disused mine. They too give their lives to keep the secret safe - they are murdered by their Nazi guards. Egypt, Valley of the Kings, present day. A body is discovered among some ruins.
It appears to be an open-and-shut case but the more Inspector Yusuf Khalifa of the Luxor police uncovers about the dead man, the more uneasy he becomes. And his investigation turns out to be anything but routine. Khalifa doesn't know it yet, but he is on the trail of an extraordinary long-lost artifact that could, in the wrong hands, turn the Middle East into a blood bath. It's a dangerous path he's taking - and to make matters worse, he's not alone. From ancient Jerusalem, the Crusades, Cathar heretics and coded medieval manuscripts to the Holocaust, hidden Nazi treasure and the murderous present-day, "The Last Secret of the Temple" is a thrilling, rollercoaster ride of adventure in search of a two thousand year-old mystery and a pulse-pounding race against time.
- ISBN10 1409092453
- ISBN13 9781409092452
- Publish Date 1 November 2009
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 19 October 2012
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Transworld Publishers Ltd
- Imprint Transworld Digital
- Format eBook (EPUB)
- Pages 960
- Language English