Date Published: 2007
ISBN: 978-0-06-084832-3
Adventure/Suspense
Hardcover
Reviewed by Gina
Flush from a card game with excellent winnings, including a mysterious medallion, Ethan Gage pays a visit to his favorite lady of the night. Following a satisfying visit he returns to his Paris abode to find that his rooms have been broken into and ransacked.
In no short order he concludes whoever demolished the order of his rooms was after the medallion. Ethan quickly heads back to his prior assignee, suspecting her role in what has happened. Upon his arrival he finds she has been murdered and in moments Ethan is accused of the crime. Now on the run he encounters a series of individuals, all seeming to help him, yet each one in turn questions him about the medallion. In short order he joins Napoleon’s venture to Egypt and finds more adventure than he ever bargained for.
Rather than saving his life, Ethan’s journey to Egypt puts him in even greater jeopardy. Between snakes tossed into his bed, knives thrown, guns fired, and an array of dastardly villains pursuing him, the jail cell in France begins to have definite appeal. Better yet, returning to America and taking up a mundane profession sounds even better. Yet as Ethan seeks to uncover the secret of the medallion he meets not only fascinating people, but a woman, Astiza, who steals his heart. Astiza seeks the medallion to uncover the greatest secrets of life and death; Ethan pursues it’s origins in the hopes of wealth. Together the two traverse the Nile, climb the walls of and search the inner caverns of the pyramids, unraveling more secrets than either could anticipate. Yet with each step, death breathes down Ethan’s neck. With enemies at every turn, from the English to the French to Mamelukes to Egyptians and a host of others, Ethan manages to stay one step ahead of the grim reaper.
While some readers would say Mr. Dietrich’s NAPOLEON’S PYRAMIDS is part Indiana Jones, part Da Vinci Code and part Jewel of the Nile, in fact he has a most unique voice, unlike any other I have read. Ethan is a total surprise and delight. Even while running for his life, there are entertaining quips that caught me completely off guard. Rather than pulling me out of the story, they drew me deeper into Ethan’s psyche. NAPOLEON’S PYRAMIDS is one of the clearest examples of an author’s growth and maturation in his own writing I have seen to date. I thoroughly enjoyed his earlier books—this one caught my imagination more than any other. Even if I had not already been fascinated with the pyramids, Masonic lore and Isian practice, this book would have captured and held my attention. The weaving of Napoleon’s venture to Egypt and mathematical analysis, blending in ancient mysteries is incredibly well done. The writing done in such fashion the reader feels the sand against his or her skin, the cool waters of the Nile soothing the heat from their bodies. Like Ethan, the reader barely has a moment to catch his or her breath before the next adventure begins.
One aspect of Mr. Dietrich’s books I have appreciated and see more in NAPOLEON’S PYRAMIDS than in any of the prior tales, is that he writes in such a manner that will appeal to men and women alike as well as a broad cross section of ages. Anyone from mid-teens upward will enjoy this story. There truly is something for everyone in its pages.
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