The Last Secret of the Temple [Paperback]

Once again the lead role is taken by Inspector Yusuf Khalifa of the Egyptian police force, who, except for his nationality and Islamic faith, is in all other ways an everyman cop and a fine detective. He is an engaging and human presence and forms the moral centre to the story. He also initiates events with his investigation into the death of a elderly European man at an achaeological site near Luxor. From this apparently minor event spins a tale that takes in Egypt, Israel, France and Germany and reveals a secret that dates back to pre-Christian times.

Caught up in it all are two new central characters, Israeli detective Arieh Ben Roi and English/Palestinian Journalist Layla al-Madani. Working both individually and together they uncover a conspiracy that dates back three thousand years but threatens to have a profound & tragic impact on the present. In doing so they and Kalifa come into contact with an extensive and colourful cast of supporting characters on all sides.

As with The Lost Army, Sussman uses the story he has crafted to focus on contemporary Middle Eastern politics; with particular attention to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. That he manages to do so and remain comparatively bipartisan is to his credit. Other books dealing with the same subject in a similar fashion often end up coming down on one side or the other, giving a skewed and distorted view of the situation there. Like all authors tackling such a complex and thorny subject however, the best Sussman can do is to scratch the surface and 'Last Secret' is able to give little real insight into an age old conflict.

Still, it does make for a sound basis for a thriller and 'Last Secret' is, for the most part, a solid, reasonably intelligent effort in that department. The plot is suitably tortuous, with numerous conspiracies large and small rising to the surface as the three leads investigate a series of apparently unconnected events. Most of these make sense and, if you're able to suspend your disbelief, even the key plot point and 'big reveal' is plausible in a Indiana Jones sort of fashion. There are enough twists to keep you guessing and at the end it all hangs together without too many glaring holes.

Kalifa is, once again, an engaging and human lead character and he anchors the book with his normalcy and level headed attitude to events. Ben-Roi & al-Madani are harder to warm too as both are more extreme characters; a necessary device as they are intended to illustrate both sides in a conflict, but neither are totally unsympathetic and you do find yourself caring for their fates at the denoument.

If there are weak points with the book they are easily indentifiable. For a start the bad guys are thin. Fanatics to a man, they are a good illustration of how unchecked nationalism and hard-line faith, no matter which religion you are, can twist morality and make men commit terrible acts against other people. Like many similarly extremist fictional characters however, there is little emotional depth to them, despite Sussman's best efforts to provide it.

The second fault is the book's length. Whilst the book starts with the same story being approached from three different directions, all of which has to meet and be tied up, it takes a long time to do it and as a result the pacing and the senses of tension and excitement sag a little. This is rescued by a tighter final act, but some more judicious editing might not have gone amiss.

The final issue I have with Last Secret is the secret itself. Without revealing it here, it came across as the weakest element of the book. That is not a criticism of the idea itself, but merely of its execution. Whilst the rest of book clings firmly to a sense of tangible realism, the central maguffin round which all events revolve is a by comparison a flight of fancy and fantasy. I found that this sat uneasily with the rest of the book and felt out of place. This may just be a result of my particular attitude to religous iconography and organised religion in general, but in a book that has strived for an air of authenticity for me it didn't quite fit.

Despite this however, I enjoyed The Last Secret of the Temple. With its setting and the character of Khalifa it is an entertaining and fresh spin on an old formula.