Masks of the Lost Kings Paperback – March 3, 2012

This is an action/adventure which has been compared to Indiana Jones and the Da Vinci Code. The main character, Suzy da Silva is an archaeologist working on a thesis that compares the ancient Egyptian history to Christianity. Unable to be funded by Oxford University, her professor Dr. Logan arranges for her to speak to the mysterious Horus Corporation. She is soon traveling to Egypt. She manages to get inside the Great Pyramid where she witnesses a murder and flees in fear for her life. She travels to the Valley of Kings to see the tomb of the boy king, Tutankhamen. She is convinced that she will find the proof she seeks there. She is joined by Tom Brooking, a talented astrophysicist. Together they discover secrets that some would kill to acquire. They are chased by assassins and others that are either trying to protect them or kill them as well.This is a thriller, adventure and mystery all rolled into one. I admire those authors that have a gift for description, and this story's strength is the description. The story is a great premise and although I would have liked to see a little more characterization, I really didn't have an issue with the characters. The distraction to me was the pacing. It started well with a jungle scene, but when it gets to Suzy and the lead-in to her Egypt adventure, the action drops while through lectures and narration, the reader is given a lot of scientific information. While I found it interesting it felt too technical to me. I found myself glossing over all the technical information to get to the action, which it took many pages to get to. Once it did however, the action was riveting. I think that anyone interested in Egyptology or adventure/thriller would very much enjoy this book. I would recommend it as it is a very good story once the action starts happening.I purchased this book on my own and received no compensation for my review.

This book was OK, nothing I would pay money for (I got it free on a Kindle special free day). It probably would have been much more suspenseful if I had read it before 2012 since it keeps hinting at something really important or earth shattering happening that year. With all the hype about the Mayan calendar ending in the media at that time the plot would have seemed more important. As it is, it just seems outdated.The story revolves around a beautiful young PHD candidate who needs to find something new in the area of Egyptian archeology to write up and publish so she will be granted the degree. While doing research she comes across information that someone thinks should not be made known to the world.But who is a friend and who is the enemy. She is followed, people get murdered around her everywhere she goes, there is a secret government agency that may be friend or foe, a giant international communications company that may be helping or may be the source of the assasination attempts. Can she trust the man she met who seems like a jerk, and does her degree advisor really want her dead?****Spoiler Ahead****All this is the usual plot elements of an archeological suspense story. What makes this one a little harder to follow than usual is all the links between "sacred numbers" from South American pyramids, to Tutankatum, to Jesus. Yeah, I said Jesus. That is where the story really fell apart for me. Just because some churches built over religious sites in Jerusalem that are related to the birth and crucifiction of Jesus may have some numbers of windows or painted decorations that match the number of lines of gold in King Tut's death mask does not make a scientific correlation. The churches were built centuries after Jesus lived and were not decorated with "sacred numbers" that could be linked to global warming. Pah-leese!!The author tries to show off his own scientific background by trying to make the reader believe in stuff that isn't possible. I think he really wants us to think he had found some kind of theory about the sun's relation to Earth weather but writing a fiction novel about it is no way to convince the world of his wisdom--it is just confusing and pretty much ruins any hope of the story being any good. He also has his own creation theory that is the climax of the book. In the book the audience hearing the theory did a standing ovation. What? I don't think so. That must be why the theory was in a book of fiction, no one in the real world would give it a second thought. I know I won't.

Masks of the Lost Kings is the 1st book by Tom Bane I have read. I am hooked and thrilled to know there are more in this series to come.Suzy da Silva is working on her PhD in archeology. Her thesis is connecting Christianity to the Egyptian gods. The thesis is the easy part. As Suzy heads to the Great Pyramids, funded by the Horus Corporation, the adventures begins. Suzy doesn't like the idea of have a escort from the Corp and goes on high alert and evasive movemnts. That isn't as easy as it might seem.She meet up with and pairs with Tom Bane... but can she trust him? Can she trust her professor who is supervising her thesis? All she knows is that she is being watched and is in danger.Mask of the Lost Kings is mystery, adventure, betrayal, murder all wrapped together. She travels from Egypt to Isreal to Mexico where she meets back up with Tom. How is the U.S. governement mixed up in this adventure.Loved the faced pace of the book along with the religious overtones, the ancient history and the connections with numerology and religion. Fantastic series.

Suzy is just a little to perfect. She's always right, intelligent, beautiful and yet so perfectly modest about it all. And everyone likes her but she has some issues to make her no perfect by definition. Its really annoying. I just couldn't get psst how !such she annoyed me to finish this book.

Although I enjoy Egyptology immensely, I am often put off by Egyptian historical novels that try to be Indiana Jones with very few real facts. This book was well worth the read though and does an excellent job of providing cinema-like entertainment with a rich nod to the history behind it. We meet Suzy da Silva who is an Oxford student entangled in a thriller that even she, with all of her brains and beauty, can't escape. Enter Tom Brookings, the astrophysicist who will become her partner as they try to solve a mystery with ancient answers. The book doesn't follow a stereotypical pattern and I liked the writing very much. It is definitely in the Dan Brown genre which is a great place to be.Did you like the book? YES.Would you recommend the book to a friend? I PUT IT ON MY FB PAGE.Would you buy a cinema ticket to see the film version? YES. I'LL BRING POPCORN.

I can see why this book is so highly praised. It draws you in instantly, with beautifully written prose and instant action. It runs along similar lines to the Dan Brown books with the involvement of conspiracy theories etc, but is done with more creativity and has an 'epic' feel to it. The mix of fact and fiction was wonderfully done, completely drawing you in and even those with little knowledge of Egyptology et al should find themselves rapt.Suzy was a great character, very real, very human and someone both men and women can identify and emphasise with.If you enjoy action, great writing, twists and turns and a book that you can lose yourself in, then this is for you.

An inventive and pacy offering ranging across Ancient Egypt, Mayan culture, Jerusalem, bad guys, good guys and the Mayan prophecy for 2012 - and all of this with only one instance of the dreaded 'F' word.I am not knowledgeable enough to be able to comment on the research but it seemed well done and was presented in a very enjoyable and understandable way throughout the story - learning without pain; at least for the reader.I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it - it would have been a 5* if it hadn't been for the 'F' word and a few typos. The ending is SCARY but most likely true and I hope that there will be a follow on episode.

A friend recommended this Tom Bane book to me and I'm really glad she did.It's fantastically detailed, all the characters have such depth you really feel you know them,but the best for me is the awesome historical adventure in this book is something else.So much so I stayed up a good part of the night till I finished reading it.

Eat your heart out Sir Walter Scott. Never since reading the works of the great historical novelist have I found any book with quite so much detail. For a while I found it all too much of a struggle and on several occasions I nearly gave up. However I read manfully on and, lo and behold, as I got near the end I was racing through the pages and enjoying every minute of what turned out to be a really good novel.. My only asvice to the author, for what it's worth, is please cut down on all that detail.