Alexander is an enigmatic figure and his tomb has seemingly been lost to the ancient world. But Daniel Knox gets swept up in a race for the greatest treasure of all time, but there are others after the prize and they will kill for it.
According to a little note at the front The Alexander Cipher was ten years in the making, which seems a long time but I can see why because there are a lot of moving parts and a lot of research must have been needed. I’ve always been interested in the ancient world and I like stories with a treasure hunt in them. This book is set in Egypt and makes good use of the locations with lots of chases through cities and races along dusty roads. It delves into the history of Alexander and the theories concerning his death and what happened in the aftermath, this was all well-detailed and I feel like I’ve learned something after reading this book.
But it’s not a textbook it’s a novel, and people are going to be reading this for the plot and the action. The style is fast-paced and lends itself well to the action. It feels, and is, a quick read despite it being just over 500 pages (although it’s a small paperback). As I mentioned before there are a lot of moving parts but Adams manages to keep a handle on them, although I do think that perhaps there were one or two characters too many. There was a plot, for example, about a dying girl, and while I can see how it was used mechanically for the overall plot I didn’t really care about the outcome. But Adams does do a good job in fleshing out these peoples’ lives, and it felt like I was reading a continuing adventure in a series of books about Knox.
Overall this is a good story that you should check out if you are interesting in Alexander, the ancient world, or treasure hunts.
