Author: Chris Everheart
Publisher: Yellow Rocket Media
Rating: WORTHY!
DISCLOSURE: Unlike the majority of reviews in this blog, I've neither bought this book nor borrowed it from the library. This is a "galley" copy ebook, supplied by Net Galley. I'm not receiving (nor will I expect to receive or accept) remuneration for this review. The chance to read a new book is often enough reward aplenty!
Erratum:
In the Adobe Digital Editions version, on page 94, we got the start of Chapter 30, minus the title 'Chapter 30"! It ran for four pages (the entirety of chapter thirty), then we got the actual chapter thirty and the same text again. The end of chapter thirty has Max encountering Renault, but at the start of chapter thirty-one, he's still searching for Renault; then chapter thirty-two takes off sequentially as it should. Something got badly screwed up here! We got chapter thirty three times: once as part of chapter twenty-nine, once as chapter thirty, then again as chapter thirty-one.
This short, fast read begins really dramatically and goes right into the action. Max's grandfather is the founder and curator of the Carter Museum, but neither he nor Max expected anyone to break in, assault Max's grandfather, and then set fire to the place. Thank goodness then, that Max chose that time on that night to stop by the museum. He managed to get inside and pull his grandfather almost literally from the flames. He also noticed something missing from one of the display cases.
Max's grandfather almost miraculously survives the assault (and being tipped out of the ground-floor window when Max rescues him from the fire!), but things go downhill from there. Max's step-grandmother is a harpy who somehow deludedly manages to blame fourteen-year-old Max for the fire and her husband's condition. Worse than this, Grandpa tells Max, in a brief moment of lucidity, that the stolen amulet was a fake - that he must find someone named Renault, and return the real and cursed amulet to Egypt. No pressure then...!
The amulet, said to be worth a million, is a wadjet eye - the Eye of Horus - designed to protect the Ka or soul of a person on their journey to the after-life. Max's grandfather came into possession of it by accident, but he never returned it, instead setting it up as the center-piece in a museum exhibit where it's been ever since. Now he evidently believes that set I has unleashed a curse upon him for taking it from the Pharaoh's mummy.
Of course you know that Max is going to manage to get where he needs to go, and here I have to say that the author neatly writes around one of the most common issue with stories like this - why doesn't the character go to the police. Often it's skirted around or glossed over, or simply ignored. Here at least, the author presents a plausible scenario, if dramatic! OTOH, there were some minor issues. At one point, Max misunderstands some spoken French and confuses 'petit chien' with 'pétition', but they actually don't sound at all alike to anyone who knows a little French, as does Max! It's the difference, close enough, between shan and shon.
I recommend this novel. It's fast-moving, well-written, visits some interesting places, and is appropriate to its target age audience. The story is believable and has a good plot, and the characters, particularly the young Max, are realistic and likable. Their actions are plausible, and even the villains seem true-to-life. Good one! I recommend it.
