Customer Reviews

Prisoners in Paradise: A Supernatural Mystery in Egypt

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Shortly into this mystical novel, we learn that Cairo, Egypt is a special place, where for seven years, no one has died. Is this city the land of the immortal? The author focuses his story on two men and one woman, all of whom have frightening secrets. In a supernatural setting full of surprises, there is a twist in every chapter with a strong sense of Middle-Eastern history. The architectural descriptions are as rich as are the psychological dissections of each character. Each person involved in this city of seeming immortality has to make possible life changing decisions. Nothing is as it seems and the plots twists keep you riveted to the end. In an almost classical mode of story telling, "Prisoners in Paradise" will keep you guessing.

Since I have actually been to Egypt years ago, I wanted to read a novel that takes place in Cairo, a fascinating city that I have walked on foot for long days and nights. I was reading with my skeptic eyes, looking for flaws, but could not stop reading after the first page. I never felt the tombs and temples come to life like they did in these pages. I was hooked. Fast paced. I could hear and smell every detail in this entertaining story. It made me want to read more and more books about Egypt. Loved it.

This novel will pull readers in from the beginning. Set in Egypt, the mysteries that surround the city of Cairo include the possible secret to immortality. Nobody has died in a specific area for seven years. Perhaps three people have the key to that secret, two men and a woman. Each one brings their own set of secrets which are really interlocking mysteries. One of the mysteries is whether or not their baggage contains any such answers. And who are these three people? What can others learn from them? Each mystery segues into more and readers are taken on a delightfully harrowing trip into the heart of Cairo.

Shebl is a gifted author who really has a strong command of Middle Eastern and Egyptian history. The descriptions of the places in this book are so vivid readers feel as if they were actually there. Shebl has the gift of transporting his readers into the settings of his mysteries. Even the most seasoned mystery fan will be surprised at the mysteries and it is doubtful that even that most seasoned mystery reader will guess the answers. This book is the work of a genius.

This is bizarre...but I purchased this book...Prisoners in Paradise, but unfortunately...inside the cover is the wrong novel! It is one entitled War on the Margins!! How in the world that happened I have no idea...but I have read a lot in my life and it is a first for me. I am reading the book anyway...and will have to purchase another Prisoners in Paradise!!

Modern day Egypt against ancient Egypt and a blend of mysteries and unique characters. Prisoners in Paradise is about the morbid idea that if mankind found the key to the door to immortality, will end up suffering nontheless. Although the ending leaves us debating that the mystery is much larger in scope than it seems, the novel doesn't fail to advocate its message through creatively threaded plots and inordinary people confronting their own unusual fears and prisons.
A creative mystery that unveils ancient Egyptian magical history and reflects on a modern day city of Cairo in the most intense ways. Rooms for neverending imaginations.

Prisoners in Paradise is one of those books that you can't forget, and won't be able to transmit its essence to someone who hasn't read it yet. Mr Shebl has a magical style of storytelling, describing places and people, while keeping you turning pages.
The chapters read more like scenes; short, breathtaking, and taking the story into a higher level. The story does not slow down. The most unimortant person or incident becomes vital and central the next chapter. The main story of a the city of Cairo becoming the new paradise after being immortal, is only what surrounds the details of the many unique characters trying to confront the fears and solve the mysteries of their lives. Intricate and unexpected in many ways while at the same time remaining coherent. The books includes some elements of of likes of Umberto Eco and Garcia Marquez, only in an modern/ancient Egyptian history style that makes it delicously original.
Five Stars