Eli Glinn has shut down Effective Engineering Solutions (EES) with no
warning, leaving Gideon Crew at loose ends as to what to do with the
remaining months he has left to live. Manuel Garza, one of Gideon's
EES coworkers and the former right-hand man of Eli, is embittered by
the sudden loss of his job and asks Gideon to meet him at the office
just as it's about to officially close its doors forever. Garza wants one
last score, one that will set him up financially for life, and a computer
still running in the office gives them a direction. The Phaistos Disc, a
previously uncracked code that is rumored to lead to riches has been
deciphered after almost five years of computing power. Garza and
Gideon set off for Egypt, but will they survive this last mission?
THE PHARAOH KEY is a bit of a
departure from the earlier Gideon
Crew novels. Eli Glinn is almost nonexistent in the storyline and
I was surprised how much I miss his pretentious and sometimes flat out
self-righteous personality. Gideon has always been a likable hero but
his crazy antics play quite well next to Eli's very carefully planned out
adventures (and yes, despite all that planning, the adventures always
go astray). Gideon and Garza don't have nearly the planning skills of Eli
so it's no surprise when their mission encounters difficulties from the
very beginning.
Garza really grew on me in THE
PHARAOH KEY. Despite being Eli's right-hand man in the earlier Gideon Crew novels, Garza was
always a bit too rigid for my liking. Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
do an excellent job at humanizing him, making him heroic even. In fact,
I grew to love Garza more than I did Gideon, which says a lot
considering how much I have enjoyed Gideon's character.
THE PHARAOH KEY is the fifth and
concluding book in the Gideon
Crew series and it's a bit bittersweet at times. I've grown to
love Gideon and his brash adventurous spirit so saying goodbye hasn't
been easy. Frankly, I'm still in denial and hoping we'll get one more
adventure out of Gideon Crew although it seems unlikely based on the
events in THE PHARAOH KEY. If
you love thrillers in the vein of the Indiana Jones movies, then the Gideon Crew series and THE PHARAOH KEY
Don't miss the this exciting adventure from #1 New
York Times-bestselling authors Preston & Child, in
which the secrets of a mysterious ancient tablet may point
the way to untold treasure-or unspeakable danger."I just want to be crystal clear about this: if it has
value, we're gonna steal it. Are you with me?"
Effective Engineering Solutions has been inexplicably shut
down and the head of the company, Eli Glinn, has all but
vanished. Fresh off a diagnosis that gives him only months
to live, Gideon Crew is contacted by one of his coworkers at
EES, Manuel Garza, who tells him the two have mere hours to
collect their belongings before the office closes forever.
After years of dedicated service and several high-risk
missions, theirs seems like the most ignoble of
terminations-until Gideon and Garza happen upon an
incredible discovery.
After centuries of silence, a code-breaking machine at EES
has cracked the long-awaited translation of a centuries-old
stone tablet, the Phaistos Disc, that dates back to an
otherwise completely unknown, ancient civilization. The
mysteries of the message itself hint at incredible
treasures, and perhaps even a world-altering secret. No one
remains at EES to take on this most remarkable mission but
Gideon and Garza. The two agree to solve the mystery of the
disc's message and split the spoils: the perfect parting
gift their employer doesn't know he has given.
What lies at the end of the trail may save Gideon's life-or
bring it to a sudden, shocking close. As Gideon and Garza
soon discover, some missions are more dangerous than others.
But as Gideon has proved again and again, there's no such
thing as too great a risk when you're living on borrowed time.