Jack, a Prussian/American aristocrat; Harry, the son of the gardener who worked his estates. Best friends since childhood, in 1939 they go to Egypt together to work on the excavations at Sakkara. There they meet - and fall in love with - Rachel Stern, beautiful, German, Jewish. When war is declared Jack returns to do his duty for the Fatherland; Harry stays on in Egypt; Rachel s return to Europe is intercepted by the Nazis and she is never heard from again.
Until four years later. Roosevelt and Churchill are to meet in Egypt for the most important summit of WWII. And Harry, Jack and Rachel are to meet too - on different sides of a daring assassination attempt that could change the course of the twentieth century.
So the book educated me on some interesting real-life history. The Nazis really did mount an assassination attempt on Roosevelt in Cairo during WWII, which almost worked. And there were some brief good bits of archaeology. I read this as a beach book; as a beach book it was ok, but really needed editing down, the book could profitably been 100 pages shorter. 30 pages from the end of the book and he's still taking 2 paragraphs to introduce new characters who'll never be heard from again....less is more....
