Reviewing H. Rider Haggard’s "Cleopatra"

Don’t let the title of the book—and, consequently, this blog post—fool you. As its subtitle (Being an Account of the Fall and Vengeance of Harmachis) suggests, this is the story of Harmachis, priest of Isis and last heir of the ancient royal line of Egypt, and how he betrayed the hopes of his family, his country, and himself when he found his fate intertwined with that famous Ptolemaic queen.

 His narrative is written in the first-person perspective, nested within a story of British archaeologists finding his remains and the scrolls he had written. Before the reader can say "Imhotep" this nesting story has introduced all the promising components for a thrilling tale of pseudo-Egyptian history.*

Dear Arthur - Stick with Holmes, This Just Wasn't Your Jam

Despite rumors of unrest in the region, a group of sightseers in Egypt venture too close to Dervish territory, leading to them into the clutches of radical Islamic guerillas. These unfortunate tourists—of American, Irish, British, and French backgrounds, along with their Egyptian servants, tour guides, and “bodyguards”—are forced to travel farther away from friendly territory to a fate of slavery, death…or (for the women in the group) worse. With the chance of rescue dwindling with every sand dune they pass, their only hope is to convert to Islam under duress…or to escape.

Reviewing "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart

When orphan Reynard “Reynie” Muldoon answers an enigmatic advertisement in the paper, he didn’t know what to expect. What he probably did NOT expect, however, was to be swept into an adventure involving three other uniquely-gifted children, a secret mission, dastardly worldwide conspiracies, subliminal messaging, abducted children (and secret agents), and lots and lots of riddles.

Expected or not, that’s what happened. After a few tests, Reynie found himself part of the Mysterious Benedict Society, a team of children hand-picked by the benevolent Mr. Benedict to carry out a vital mission: to go undercover at a shadowy Institute to stop some unidentified—but unquestionably horrible—plan from successfully unfolding.

Somehow, secret messages are being transmitted via television and radio* into people’s minds, and only Mr. Benedict has been able to discover them. Unfortunately, these messages have a protective fail-safe: they convince the people that hear these messages that the messages don’t exist. Only minds that are particularly focused on the truth can detect them at all…which is where the Mysterious Benedict Society comes in.