DiDonovan

Michael Doyle is about to tackle the greatest mystery of modern times: the Great Pyramid at Giza. Many have sought to uncover its mysteries, and all have failed; but Michael's journey to Egypt to view the pyramids takes an unexpected turn that's about to send him on a path no other explorer has followed before.

The known facts about the Great Pyramid of Giza are delicately woven into a thriller that weaves romance and intrigue into its historical mystery.  An opening explanation of three known facts about the pyramid, Pharaoh Cheops, and the Medjay (desert tribesmen turned professional warriors) set the stage for events to follow and clarify facts from fiction.

How can an under-thirty-year-old software engineer with no previous archaeological or historical experience in Egypt accomplish what no other before him has achieved? As events move back and forth between a Medjay assassin who will stop at nothing to solve an ancient mystery and a man about to enjoy a long-awaited Egyptian vacation, there's intrigue at every step and mystery woven into history from the first page onward.

As a cast of characters from different countries and with different interests come on board, the novel rides smoothly through the roller-coaster ups and downs of danger and confrontations at nearly every turn. Alexander Marmer is a master at building suspense and taking seemingly-obvious paths and giving them quick twists so that they lead to entirely unexpected directions.

It would have been all too easy to have a confusing story line given the expanding characters, special interests and events, but Marmer cultivates an exquisite ability to create a realistic, historically accurate mystery that creates much intrigue with no confusion. What skills could a software engineer bring to the table of an ancient mystery that has confounded historians and archaeologists for millennia? That's just one of the many delightful questions in Four Ways to Pharaoh Khufu, which is anything but predictable.

This powerful read will delight fans of historical mysteries and Egyptian settings; especially those who have absorbed enough of the latter to believe there're few approaches left to surprise them. Look again!