Review: THE MASKS OF THE LOST KINGS by Tom Bane

3 of 5 stars

This book started out great, but got bogged down in too much exposition. While I enjoyed learning about ancient Egypt, I did not want the whole book to be a history lesson. I found myself skipping page after page of descriptions until I got back to the action.

The story revolves around Oxford Ph.D. student, Suzy da Silva, as she researches the link between Tutankhamun and Christianity for her thesis. Her travel to Egypt is financed by the Horus Corporation who also sends a martial-arts-trained bodyguard, Getsu, with her. Suzy manages to give the bodyguard the slip and goes off exploring on her own. That's when all the action starts. Her research takes her from Egypt to Israel to Mexico. Along the way she's attacked by assassins, but manages to escape. She doesn't know who attacked her or why. Could it be Getsu? Or is she getting too close to a closely-guarded secret?

I had to suspend belief on some of the fight scenes because they seemed a little over-the-top with Suzy besting every assailant who attacked her.  That didn't seem plausible. Once the book moved onto Mexico and the Mayans, I lost my enthusiasm for the book. Once again, too much exposition on the history of the ancient Mayans. The constant changing of POV was also distracting. First we are in Suzy's head, then Tom's head, then Getsu, all in the same chapter. It was hard to keep everyone straight. The book was building to a "secret" climax that would change the world, but when it was finally revealed, I was disappointed in the ending. It certainly didn't live up to all the hype about it throughout the book.

I received this book from the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.