Customer Reviews

The Alexander Cipher

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In Alexandria, excavation of a site to construct a new hotel reveals the ruins of an ancient tomb. Construction manager Mohammed el-Dahab shuts down work to notify the authorities of the find as proscribed by Egyptian law. The Feds send archeologists to catalogue the tomb. The professionals quickly determine the artifacts come from the age of Alexander the Great. As a side consequence of an Alexander age discovery, there is renewed interest in finding the tomb of the Great Macedonian conqueror.

As the fervor arises Daniel Knox works on a dive vessel in the Red Sea until his chivalrous nature gets him in trouble when the Good Samaritan rescues a woman from a sexual predatory mobster with money, connections and anger. Forced to flee, he rushes to Alexandria where he has a haven to hide in with an archeological friend Augustin until the Red Sea incident becomes forgotten. Daniel gets inside to see the new Alexandria tomb and realizes the greatness of the discovery because there are clues to where Alexander the Great was buried. He soon meets ancient Egyptian language expert Gaille Bonnard, who is part of a team working on an Alexander dig to the north. Before he knows what happened Daniel is in love and searching for Alexander's tomb.

Although overwhelmed with too many subplots, THE ALEXANDER CIPHER is a terrific thriller that cleverly interweaves historical tidbits of Ancient Egypt and Macedonia during the Alexander era into the contemporary adventure. Readers will root for Knox, a sort of modern day Indiana Jones, who gets into one hot water situation after another until the audience assumes he is an over cooked hard boiled egg. Fans will enjoy his escapades in an entertaining brisk archeological thriller.

Harriet Klausner

This was a first good attempt by Will Adams in his attempt at fiction. He obviously has done his homework in terms of history, and his own background is well established by his knowledge of the content/geographic locale in which the book takes place. However, in reading this novel, you end up asking yourself if you've ever watched a movie where EVERYTHING was just too conveniently CO-mingled, and the realism went out the door? Despite the differences in characters, by the end of the novel, it's like this guy was trying to write the next Guy Ritchie script using an inbred family from Appalachia. The Characters all seem to have a history with one another, literally - all of them are within the 2nd degree of separation (ref: 6 degrees theory). I'm not going to give things away because the plot is well founded and makes for great reading. But the way Will Adams put this thing together, it would make for a better movie script than an actual novel.
Now, don't get me wrong, and you may disagree with this. But every author writes in their own style/syntax - it seems as though Adams is trying to come into his own. There is a great deal of confusion in terms of character references. He uses a lot of pronouns without a lot of congruence. There are times when there are 2 or more characters involved in an event and it becomes a chore in deciding "who the F#" just said/did/or is the author referring?! Again, I will say that this was a good read. It would have been better, had Adams put this novel through at least one more edit.
The main story, the overall plot, and its originality are great. The characters are "so-so", the back story of the characters is very blah (because of the "co-mingling" of their fates - seriously, it's like a "red-neck" family feud set in Egypt). I'm sorry...no one group of "strangers" can be so intermingled - and then flip-flopped into knowing each other because of the central belief of a deranged lunatic and his son - especially in a place so big as the Mediterranean.
Which brings me to my harshest critique - the author is writing in English. But it's like he's writing Americans, Greeks, Frenchman, Australians, and Arabs like a Briton. I'm not being racist, but there are certain things that different people of the world say in terms of their manner, syntax, and slang. The text didn't come across that way. The characters were dynamic to a certain degree, but it came across a bit contrived. That and the fact that again, the pronouns (He, She, and They)were so overused that you couldn't readily tell who was doing what, without doing a double take.

Overall - the book has the potential to be a better movie script. A novel...not so much. A historical view of some really neat facts on Alexander, Ptolemy, and the chaos that still plagues Egypt regarding her history - absolutely a find. To the author....try a bit more editing on the next story. But hey if you can sell this one to Hollywood...do it!

Will Adams creates a new thriller character destined to be a long-running series of best sellers. Daniel Knox is a knock-around archaeologist in Egypt with a history of interesting relationships with his brethren and sponsors.

The supervisor of a construction project in Alexandria stumbles onto a potential site of the final resting place of Alexander the Great, whose body was coveted as a justification for power by his successors in Egypt, the Ptolemys, Alexander's native Macedonians.

The race begins in the fashion of an Indiana Jones movie. Knox is pursued by a bad guy for saving a young girl from being raped by the tyrant. Along the way, there is a budding love affair with a woman who blamed Knox for the odd death of her archaeologist father, an evil female colleague who seems easily seduced by lovers and sources of money, a little girl desperately in need of a bone marrow transplant, rich Macedonian nationalists intent on using Alexander's body as the means, after more than 2,000 years, of fomenting revolution to establish a separate Macedonia out of Greece and Balkan states.

The Alexander Cipher beautifully blends the history of Alexander and his successors into an entertaining, rip-roaring, action-packed, page-turning adventure. The past of Daniel also will not remain there, as the female protagonist in the story, Gillie, moves from a hatred attributable to the strange death of her father to something more beautiful.

This is an excellent, well-crafted story. It cries out for a sequel in the adventures of Daniel Knox.

If you like Dan Brown and other contemporary thrillers with historic background and plot, then this is a good book for you. Trying to locate the tomb of Alexander the Great is not as easy as looking where you think he would be buried. The story is well written, definitely a page turner, the characters are pretty well developed. Probably would make a good movie, but I don't think that many people really know or care where Macedonia is/was. I would recommend the book as a good read.

This is a nice fast paced book with lots of twists and turns along the way. In no way was it predictable. However, the ending seemed rushed compared to the rest of the book. It was however still enjoyable to read.

I liked this story. Interesting outlook on Alexander the Great and the mystery of the location of his tomb.

The Alexander Cipher by Will Adams is an adventurous novel that has it all. Political machinations, ethnic strife, power-hungry corporate types, greedy antiquities dealers, mercenaries, sick children, desperate parents, brainy scientific types and beautiful women. Sort of like Matthew Reilly, but better edited, without all the damn italics and exclamation points!! (Sorry, when I think Reilly, I think !! OH BOY!! Exclamation points!!!) But, I digress....

Will Adams debut novel features a sort of nere'do well Egyptologist that everyone seems to love to hate, Daniel Knox, whose life long interest in Alexander the Great puts him right in the thick of things when the novels bad guy..the slightly crazy and wildly wealthy Nicolas Dragoumis, learns of that Alexander's tomb may have been discovered. Nicolas has some wacky belief that the tomb contains secrets and treasures that will cause Macedonia to become an independent state once more, and he has the wealth, power and obsession to see his beliefs through. Its up to our hero, Daniel, and of course, his newly discovered gorgeous sidekick, Gaille, to stop him and save the antiquities. (Sort of like an Indiana Jones meets James Bond thing, but without MI-6 and spiffy weapons and toys.) And of course, there is history between Gaille and Daniel that has to be resolved for their adventure to be a success.

I'm a bit of an ancient history buff, so I found the well-researched novel interesting, although occasionally confusing. There is a large cast of characters and apparently my old brain had a little trouble keeping up. Once I figured everyone out though, I really enjoyed the book. It's a bit slow here and there, but overall, a good solid read.

This past march, Will Adams has burst onto the archaeology thriller scene with his new debut to an upcoming series involving ancient history archaeologist Daniel Knox. This first installment titled The Alexander Cipher, has our hero Knox in more than a bit of hot water. It seems Daniel is wanted by just a handful of Egyptian bad guys and governmental officials for a few past deeds, misunderstandings, accidents, and quasi-unprofessional secret digs. Early in our story while aboard a boat, hired by a wealthy artifact hunter to dive Alexandria's waters for sunken treasures, Daniel accidently comes upon this mogul as he rapes a young woman on board. Daniel's temper gets the best of him and he proceeds to attack and beat the man, soon fleeing for his life knowing his professional reputation is once again skating on thin ice, and that another heavyweight with power will be out for revenge, this time to kill. While on the run, under cover of darkness, dodging bullets and screeching car chases, Daniel hooks up with old friends for help and the chase is on for him to avoid being shot, to install his reputation back to high esteem among his peers, and to come out ahead of the game as he also gets knee deep into the current latest and greatest Egyptian archaeology dig that will prove to be the most significant and spectacular find since Carter's excavation of Tut's tomb.

The premise of this story that offers the reader history, love of archaeology, and the romance of lore and legend, is the story of the missing tomb of Alexander the Great. One of the greatest history mysteries of all time is the question of where his body and treasures landed. Following one lead after another, Daniel and his friends, the government, the antiquities experts, the terrorists and rich Egyptian moguls, all jockey for position trying to beat each other to the finish line, all following clues and coded ciphers to find where old Alexander is interred under the blazing sands of Egypt. Lots of action, great history, well developed characters, humor and adventure, all act as essential ingredients that allow Will Adams debut novel to rank right up high with William Dietrich, Raymond Khoury, James Rollins and all the other popular art/history mystery fiction thriller writers. In fact, I thought the author's attention to historical detail and extremely talented writing skills were actually a cut above the rest by offering more meat and substance to the tale. I highly recommend this book and eagerly await the next.

I would have to say that the story was definitely interesting. A search for Alexander the Great's long-lost tomb, and to find his body, who could resist a novel like that. However, too many hidden agendas and shifting allegiances brought a good story down.

My Egyptian, Macedonian and Greek history is definitely rusty. The author did impress me with his knowledge of all three and throw in some seamless fiction into the works too. Throw in a few lines from The Iliad and Homer and other sources about the Gordian knot that Alexander had to cut and the prophecy that went with it. However, some of the sub-plots, personal histories and personal vendettas convoluted the star attraction, finding Alexander's tomb. It became more of a personal chase from one desert to another and back again.

Sorry for this small paragraph of spoilers, but too much emphasis on one tomb and lifting the plinth. Daniel Knox, the man who could escape virtually any situation? I also didn't know that Egyptians or the people who operated in Egypt were so advance that they could track anyone if they turned on their mobile. Granted, the technology is available, but was it absolutely plausible to do that throughout the entire novel? It didn't feel credible. Was everyone working with CIA-technology? I was also absolutely disappointed that Rick had to die, because Daniel and Rick did make a good team, albeit better than Daniel did with Gaielle. Of course, they did eventually find Alexander's tomb and his mummified remains. The eventual move to move his body back to Macedonia, and the press conference and corruption of the Egyptian antiquities people just made everything too convenient to end the story.

It definitely stopped looking like anything from an Indiana Jones adventure probably after they lifted the plinth and then mutated into something beyond comprehension. I was sorely disappointed.

Recommended only.

I find myself not even able to think of anything clever to title this review (assuming I am ever clever in the first place).

I had high hopes for this novel as it dealt with the long-hidden tomb of Alexander The Great, and the discovery that there may be a treasure trove of ancient artifacts buried with him up for grabs.

Daniel Knox, the protagonist of the book, is your average, run of the mill 'hero' for a novel of this ilk....he of course gets swept up in a quest to find the purported treasure, and of course the requisite bad guys and damsel in distress that he 'seemingly can't resist' make appearances throughout the book.

What doesn't make an appearance, to me, is a plot that shows anything more than the most basic of research into the life and death of one of the greatest warriors in history...a man who changed the face of Greece and Macedonia in his efforts to conquer the world.

For a book to just kill time with, this will certainly do the trick. For anyone looking for well-written history involving Alexander The Great...look elsewhere....you will find better.