Immersive, Fast-Paced Read that Harkens Back to Ancient Egypt

Ben and Ellie have come to an out-of-the-way bookshop in a small town in England. After a pleasant time, as they’re walking out of the bookstore, they make accidental contact with a man coming in. Immediately, they seem to be transported far away in a strange sphere. They each receive an ancient Egyptian symbol and are then whisked away back to the present. A shadowy group of whom we know nothing seems to know that this has happened, even before the participants debrief, and mobilize to negate the group. Soon, Ben, Ellie, and Gerhardt are in a fight for their very lives that takes them from England to Egypt, all the while trying to understand what precisely has happened to them and what it means.

I read the prequel to this book first, Genesis. I really enjoyed immersing myself into a different and magical culture made real by descriptions of that very different world. The author pulled me into this book right away as well, even in the more familiar surrounding of a bookshop. She has a way of describing things that is very visual, so I can very plainly see both the usual and the unusual, yet the descriptions don’t seem over-wrought. Too often, I see writers who seem to use adjectives and adverbs as a crutch for not being able to find the right word, whereas this writer is able to choose words of all categories that are strong and make the world come alive for the reader with seeming ease. She is even able to make the more magical, otherworldly elements of this book seem wholly real.

This book is fast-paced, and oh, what a ride it is! I became absolutely immersed in its world and was loath to come out. I hope Ms. Longuet has a sequel up her sleeve; I will be one of the first in line to read it.