The Hidden Oasis

Ploddingly paced, frustratingly contrived, and beyond implausible, this Indiana Jones knockoff sets a British Egyptologist and an American rock climber on a path toward an ancient treasure secreted in the legendary hidden oasis of the title. The pair are pursued at every turn by a psychopathic Cairo arms dealer and an American embassy official with an uncertain agenda. The heroine's American accent gives British reader Gordon Griffin serious trouble. However, he also does his best to keep things moving and is reasonably adept in the roles of the other characters, particularly those of the sinister arms dealer and the taciturn Bedouin who provides aid to our heroes. A.B.G. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

August 10, 2009
Set largely in Egypt's vast western desert, Sussman's entertaining if formulaic third archeological thriller (after The Last Secret of the Temple
) starts out as an Indiana Jonesian quest for a legendary desert paradise known as the Oasis at the End of the World. When Alex Hannen, a former CIA agent living in Egypt, is found dead, an apparent suicide, her estranged sister, Freya, a world-renowned rock climber, travels to Cairo for Alex's funeral. Freya, soon realizing her sister was murdered, vows to bring the killer to justice. After befriending one of Alex's closest friends, enigmatic Egyptologist Flin Brodie, the unlikely duo find themselves on the run from a host of assassins, spies and government agents—and charging headlong into one of the biggest archeological discoveries in centuries. The smart pace and attention to character development compensate for some dubious plot twists toward the end reminiscent of a weird X-Files
episode.