The Eye of Ra - Tapa dura

A brilliant atmospheric thriller, set in Cairo and the surrounding tombs and deserts, involving the threat of the past entwined with present deaths and future machinations.

Omar Ross, a maverick archaeologist, is disturbed by the death at the foot of the pyramids of Giza of his old colleague, a famous Egyptologist, Richard Cranwell. Cranwell had become obsessed by his search for the legendary lost city of Zerzura.

Ross’s suspicions become further aroused by documents left referring to other deaths, of Carnarvon, of Wingate, of Carter, all linked by the inscription for the god Thoth. It seems as if Cranwell had been on the verge of a great discovery; but every contact, every informant, disappears. Cranwell’s body itself is lost and Ross, threatened, beleagured and friendless, turns to his mother’s family, of the Bedouin tribe.

This is a first novel with a difference. Written with great confidence, it is rich with Egyptian mythology and history, its new discoveries are plausible and convincing, the secret organizations and believers complex and frightening, and the cast of characters lively and varied.

“As I walked along the pyramid’s base, I ran my hand along the polished stone blocks, relearning their texture, wondering again as I’d wondered for many years, at their precision. The pyramid is a masterpiece of mathematical precision. Was this simply to satisfy the vanity of a single man, the pharoah Khufu, who wanted to triumph over death and live a million years?

I had come back in a full circle, I realised, back inevitably to death, the great obsession of the ancient Egyptians, the great taboo of the twentieth century. Was the pyramid intended simply as huge and vulgar tombstone, or was it something else – a vast cosmic clock, a machine for measuring time?

To the ancient Egyptians death was a journey into an alternative dimension, a shadow of endless possibilities. But if the pyramids were intended just as monuments, why were they built with such precision? And how did the ancient Egyptians develop such accurate engineering techniques – and apparently very suddenly – when the rest if the world was still living in the stone age?

I screwed up my eyes at the incredible brightness of the sun. Not a single cloud remained in the unforgivingsky. I remember my childhood like that.

Egypt, its fabulous archaeology, the extraordinary mythology and history, has long fascinated all of us. And not the least of the mysteries is how and by whom the Pyramids came to be built. Michael Asher’s novel, brilliant, gripping, atmospheric, comes up with a new solution.

Omar James Ross had been sacked from his job with the Egyptian Antiquities Service for unspecified offences. But on his return to Cairo to identify his old friend, a famous Egyptologist, Richard Cranwell, found dead at the bottom of the pyramids, he is disturbed by the new links to his forbidden research.

Ross’s suspicions became further aroused by documents left referring to other deaths, Carnarvon, of Wingate, of Carter, all linked by the inscription for the god Thoth. It seems as if Cranwell had been on the verge of a great discovery, possibly of a legendary lost city, possibly of a legendary lost city , possibly a connection to the tomb of Aknaton. But every contact, every informant, disappears: Cranwell’s body itself is lost and Ross, threatened, beleagured and friendless, turns to his mother’s family, of the Bedouin tribe.

'The Eye of Ra' is an extraordinary novel. Written with great confidence and pace, rich in Egyption mythology and history, its new discoveries are plausible and convincing, the secret organisations and their believers complex and frightening, and Omar Ross is a great, complex, quirky character. A highly atmospheric thriller with all the answers to the Curse of Kings.