The worthy continuation.
Respectable lady scholars shouldn’t be dodging evildoers, escaping lost tombs, and chasing down magical artifacts. Archivist and suffragette Ellie Mallory always dreamed of putting her scholarly skills to work in the ancient sands of Egypt. She never imagined she would be doing so in order to save an object of legendary power from a batch of ruthless villains. Racing baddies to an arcanum of Biblical proportions is only one of Ellie’s problems. Her hopelessly academic and perpetually mortified step-brother, Dr. Neil Fairfax, is about to learn that she’s been gallivanting around the globe with his danger-magnet best friend, Adam Bates—the roguish surveyor for whom Ellie harbors increasingly complicated feelings. Add the petite and terrifyingly fearless Constance Tyrrell to the mix, and Ellie either has a crack team of artifact-saving experts to hand… or a recipe for disaster. Together, they’ll need to follow a trail of three-thousand-year-old clues from the necropolis of Saqqara to the temples of Luxor and beyond, where the ruined capital of a heretic pharaoh hides a secret with the potential to upend history. To keep an earth-shattering magic from falling into the wrong hands, Ellie will need to pull out all the stops—even if that means resorting to fisticuffs, ignoring proper archaeological processes… and facing a terrible choice between doing what she knows is right or breaking her own heart.
Raiders of the Arcana. Book 2
This time the book is longer (mostly due to the growing cast of characters), but it doesn't make it less entertaining.
We pick up our journey from where we left it, Ellie and Adam arrive to Egypt in hopes to outmanoeuvre the villains who set their eyes on one of the Biblical famous artifacts - staff of Moses.
So far Ellie and Adam has been doing this "save the world" or at least "save the arcana from the wrong hands" together, but the number of people involved grew rapidly. Constance, Ellie's friend mentioned in the first book is now stationed in Egypt with her father, she'd rather dive into the whirwind of this dangerous adventure she hoped for so long than be reminded each day that she needs to find herself a husband. Neil or Dr. Fairfax is stupefied by the sudden arrival of his baby sister, which basically tore him out of safe and routine life he always preferred. Sayyid, Neil's foreman, but actually a formiddable Egyptian scholar who had no chance of leading the excavation himself due to his origins. Together they track the three-thousand-year-old clue to probably find not only the magical staff that could be a considerable threat, but the key to the truth about one of the most mysterious pharaohs in the history of Egypt that bothered Neil for the past decade.
It's not the end of the cast, but I don't want to spoil anything that came as a surprise to me. It's really no fun to read if you know those things.
As in previous books it actually provides a great deal of historical accuracy along with author's speculation. But author is not the only one with the theories like that, Benson simply sets this theory in stone within the plot of her book. But mixing it all together created quite a believable picture, which I found pretty cool and it kept me so upbeat while reading. Despite all the mysticism.
Maybe for someone who has an extensive knowledge of Egypt's history will laugh at it (at least I haven't seeked for confirmation of this thought of mine), but for lesser knowledgable lot it comes across as pretty decent story.
Plus the style of writing and the pacing make the good combination of rest and adventure, in general I'd divide this book into three parts - arrival, travel, tomb, but don't think that any of these lack some nerve-tickling moments, they just don't share the same intensity with the last part obviously being the most intense. In Acknowledgements Jacquelyn once again mentions the Atwater couple who helped this book to become better, while they helped to beta read it, which I think is wonderful and what many books lack sometimes, a bit more time and a good advice.
The next part, which is obvious is the between-the-lines (not really) commentary about the British Empire involvement in other countries. Britain was not the only one to decide to seemingly ligellay ship off many precious antiques (France, America) or basically the history of another country they actually had no right to in a common sense. The inspiration was drawn from reality, thus we have several characters that share their own fate / story with the reader. It's not a sob story, but the helpless situation these individuals found themselves in. Before the arrival of Adam and Ellie, wich allowed them to do something, although it will forever stay a secret the the outside world.
This comes along with a peppered dynamic chain of events full of adventure and danger.
I love that Benson actually makes the whole thing quite logical with actions and consequences. The characters push the plot and the plot pushes the characters. It's nice to see that everyone conforms to their own individuality, having their own small changes (actually big changes considering their lives in general).
A note to share is that Adam and Ellie share the spotlight with characters like Neil and Contsance a lot, which actually promises something more in the future. Most certainly adventure and who knows even romance (because they do have that vibe, it's funny how Neil is terrified of Connie a bit, but also finds her so beautiful now, while Connie even considered Neil as a prospect lover, before she finds out something about him, like they all do, and changes her mind, but by the end of the book she again turns more positive about Stuffy, this is how eandearingly she calls him, which fits him so well). But I really was up to it, although Connie felt too adventurous in the first book, she still had too little time for us to know her better, but in this book she showcased her bravery and determination. Neil is a contrasting character to her, Stuffy is a perfect nickname for him, he loves his quiet and the dig he did, he is a bit cowardly because of that, which is pretty understandable and very humane. Yet he goes through changes, which do not leave him as some superhero, he's still Stuffy, but he tries to change for better.
As for relationship between Ellie and Adam it becomes the question that keeps hanging between them due to events of this book. Prior they were alone in the jungle. During the journay their affection did not diminish, but now they are among the society and the situation is dangerous to Ellie's reputation. So seemingly they have no other choice but to keep away from each other, because Adam doesn't want Ellie to change her principles about marriage just because their situation "requires" it, but he also doesn't want to hurt her, which leaves them in this dilemma. Their decision is of course at the very end.
But honestly they're so loving and caring.
Oh, the last thing. The most dangerous part of this book is still Jacobs I think. Even if our company found the details on who are at least few hirers behind the scenes and the prostects of it. But in the eyes of Ellie and others Jacobs became the most dangerous individual.
It's actually interesting because Jacobs has his own spot in this book. While we still don't know who he is and what are his origins, we at least now know his goal.
Another point is why I think he's the most formiddable so far, not only his keen intuition on people lying to him or his unyealding determination in his actions as if he was made of steel, but his own words about the people who hired him. Those people can sit in the comfort of their homes, bound by their power and status, but Jacobs feels like he can do anything, literally anything and it's unlikely anything will stop him if he puts his mind on it. I find the way he exists in the story is truly great.
This was such a joyful ride, I wish to write more and in greater detail, but I will leave it for my memory to hold. Although it's unreliable sometimes.
And onto the next adventure, which comes at the end of this year, who knows exacly when. But I can only say that the next stop is India!
RATE: 5/5. Excellent continuation to the series.
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