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McDermott, Andy - 'Temple of the Gods'
Paperback: 512 pages (Aug. 2012) Publisher: Headline ISBN: 0755354729

This is the eight novel in a series which started with THE HUNT FOR ATLANTIS (2007). Archaeologist Nina Wilde has become estranged from her husband Eddie Chase, who is wanted for a murder he did not commit (the details of which are fully explained in the previous book in the series, EMPIRE OF GOLD. Nina is the director of the International Heritage Agency (IHA) which has resulted in her going to many different countries around the world on various archaeological excavations over several years since her discovery of the location of Atlantis. She is investigating the origin of three mysterious statuettes that were stolen from her just before Eddie vanished. She hears that they are being held by a reclusive Japanese industrialist,named Takashi and she flies to Tokyo and goes to this strange skyscraper building where all the menial security and cleaning jobs are performed by robots. We all need a couple of those in our homes!

Her husband, Eddie Chase, who is an ex-SAS Yorkshireman stereotype, with lots of "ay ups" in his speech has also coincidentally, clandestinely penetrated the building's robot security. By the end of the novel we are thoroughly sated with car chases, helicopter gunships and the like. The characters, in one section, spend a lot of time in submarines fighting other similar ships around the location of Atlantis which was very exciting. Nina and Eddie have many adventures before we reach the conclusion of this book. Many of the unanswered questions from previous books in the series also are concluded in this one.

To appreciate this novel to the full, it is better if one reads all of the previous ones in the series, in the same way as with perhaps Clive Cussler's 'Dirk Pitt' series is best enjoyed. Then one understands all of the references to previous adventures and characters in other works. The author does give some back-story but it is very limited as there is so much action in this book with someone getting killed or captured nearly every other page. About every five pages there is also a change of country which is kind of confusing as the change maybe from a desert landscape to Switzerland, resulting in all sorts of clothing changes.

This is not the kind of book that gives answers to great moral questions but if you want to read a very exciting book that is effectively an archaeological quest thriller, which is perhaps a little formulaic in its approach, but where the action is non-stop than this is the one to pick up.

Recommended.

Terry Halligan, England
December 2012

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last updated 6/01/2013 19:47