A Traveller's History of Egypt

 Long in advance of actually traveling there, I chose A Traveller’s History of Egypt by Harry Ades as being a way to prepare myself for the incredible and very long history of Egypt. It did take me some months to plow through the material which is written in a timeline as would be any good history textbook. It begins before history was recorded to the present time. I found myself reading a couple chapters, then putting it down for other reading material, and picking it up again. I just finished the last page when I’m only a week from beginning my journey. Ades book was first published in 2007, and it is a comprehensive yet concise history of the country.

 

The book included prehistoric times reaching back to 33,000,000 BCE. (BCE stands for “before the common era,” and is an accepted way of dating things. Much of the non-Christian world objects to AD and BC. AD refers to Anno Domini, “in the year of the Lord” and BC is simply “before Christ.” The BCE/CE system avoids a religious designation and CE simply refers to the “common era.” 1 CE would refer to what was probably Christ’s fourth or fifth year of life.)

 

It was around 3000 BCE that the rules of Upper Egypt took control of Lower Egypt, but how that occurred remains mostly unknown. It was about that same time that the first evidence of writing was found. It was over the next millennium that writing really developed and Egypt experienced its first dynastic period. Ades catalogued the various rules of Egypt, noting there were 31 dynasties. The 31^st dynasty of Alexander the Great was the beginning of the Ptolemaic period in 332 BCE. The Roman Period lasted from 30 BCE under Augustus to 395 CE, the last Roman emperor having been Theodosius I. (It was in 401CE that the Visigoths sacked Rome.) The author took the reader through the Byzantine Period followed by the Arab Period, the Malmuk Period, and the Ottoman Period which ended with World War I in 1914. There was also a French Occupation by Napolean from 1798 to 1801, the Dynasty of Muhammad Ali from 1805 to 1953. The British Occupation began in 1883 and lasted until 1953 when Egypt was declared a republic. Ades continued the political history of the county under Nasser, Sadat and finally Mubarak who was in office in 2007 time this book was published.

 

Simply put, if you’re interested in an excellent history of Egypt, this is the book for you.

Edge of Honor by Brad Thor

 

#24 in the Scot Harvath saga. This one picks up where Shadow of Doubt left off . . . with he and his Norwegian spy girlfriend Solvi Kolsted, heading off to exchange wedding vows. Harvath is not one to do anything subtle and plans a honeymoon to beat all honeymoons - a 6-month around the world excursion. How do all these super spys managed to stas  millions in hidden accounts around the world? 

When the get back to his home on the Potomac that has Mount Vernon as a neighbor, he needs to start the process of fully retiring from The Carlton Group, purveyors of protection to the most well heeled of the world. It's late late June and Harvath wants Solvi to see the US wish itself another July 4th birthday. 

One of the swanky parties he's invited to is at the US Naval Observatory, where the Vice-President resides. Upon arrival, they witness a large crowd of protesters. What does he care? He's retired and has put politics in his rear view mirror. But being retired doesn't mean he's turned off his spidey-sense. He and Solvi notice 2 guys in all black each carrying large backpacks that get tossed. They both duck just before the packs explode sending shrapnel into the crowd. Then others in black jump out of cars and start spraying the protesters. Both jump from their vehicle, grabbing firearms that are always packed in the Suburban, take out a few bad guys and head for the nearby Norwegian Embassy just ahead of more well armed and trained adversaries.

Once inside, their first thought is to protect the ambassador, and that they do, but not before a few embassy workers are mowed down. By this time, every law enforcement officer and those from the various government agencies descend on the area. What was the goal of the shooters? Was this a 1-off occurrence? 

This all occurs in the months after the US has elected an America-First president who flung around a ton of pre-election rhetoric to amp up the party base. A big goal was to get the US out of NATO (sound familiar?). As summer approaches, President Mitchell has called a summit of NATO members to DC to discuss this massive rearrangement of the NATO alliance. The summit is scheduled for the weeks following July 4th. And this attack occurs right about the time most European leaders were preparing for departure to DC. One of the leaders, the Prime Minister of Norway (not known for being a devoted fan of Solvi's politics) has surprisingly requested her to be posted to her security detail. 

One the PM lands and Solvi contained tightly within a protective bubble, Harvarth is now off to find out who or what was behind the attack (and that one was just the first of more to come). You know Harvath: once a problem solver, always a problem solver. His search for those behind the scenes makes up the bulk of the book. And true to form, Thor takes us on a wild and supersonic-paced dash through all levels of democracy, influencers,  lobbyists, patriots (real and wannabe) to put down what appears to be an inevitable rebellion and make sure our democratic republic remains. 

I've read all 23 prior Thor/Harvath books and, if I'm honest, I wasn't all that excited about jumping back in again. I mean, how many different ways can Thor dream up to test Harvath? I'd actually considered passing on this episode. That would've been a mistake. Thor is clever and creative in what he layers on Harvath and ingenious in how Harvath manages to crawl his way through bad guys who think they know better. Dont' know how Thor does it, but it seems like each book tops his previous outing. 

I know what your thinking. Just know that the President's nature and description bare little similarity to anyone you might be thinking of. 

And to make things worse, Thor already teased out the title of his 2026 thriller, Cold Zero. Pretty sure I won't be as hesitant as I was a few weeks ago.

East Coast Don  

Behave, The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

 Behave, The Biology of Humans at our Best and Worst by Robert. M. Sapolsky is the most impressive nonfiction book that I’ve read this year. It was published in 2017. Sapolsky is a Stanford professor who refers to himself as a primatologist and neuroscientist. He has spent his life studying and living with primates, and he is well educated in the neurosciences. I sometimes read the book, but I listened to most of it since he is a most entertaining speaker. Despite what would seem to be a deeply serious subject, he writes with great humor. The author’s intent was for this to be a book of interest to non-scientists. However, the language about neuroanatomy does get complex. It would be helpful to have some prior knowledge about neuroanatomy although he does patiently educate people who are coming to such topics for the first time. 

Minus the pages for acknowledgments, appendices, glossary and the index, the book is about a 700-page tome, so be prepared to take that on. However, the content is rich and exciting. Sapolsky discusses the complexity of reaching an understanding of our human behavior. The subject matter is far too complex for me to summarize it in a meaningful way. My advice would be to read his short epilogue to help you make a decision about reading this masterful work. After admitting the complexity of the topic he undertook, I loved his closing comment, “Finally, you don’t have to choose between being scientific and being compassionate.” I thoroughly enjoyed this work and it was certainly worth the nearly 27 hours required to listen to the audiobook.

Mythos

 Stephen Fry is a British actor, director, broadcaster, comedian, and writer. Given that he narrated his book, Mythos, the term narrator should be added to that list. On some book jackets, there is a subtitle, The Greek Myths Retold. Many years ago when I got my bachelor’s degree (to my children, those were ancient times), I found myself entranced by ancient Greek literature, and I took enough classes to get a minor in that topic. While I had some familiarity with the myths, those courses were mostly about reading the Greek Playwrights: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes. Of course, we read Homer, Plato and Aristotle, and some other authors I no longer remember. In this book, Fry uses his writer’s license to retell some of the stories in his own spin. But, I did not find anything problematic about his version of the stories. His book is also a good place to learn about the stories of Narcissus, Prometheus, and more.

 

I loved this epic work, especially the organization of the book. He covered all the Olympian gods and so much more. He began with Kronus and the Titans. He then told of the creation of Zeus and the other 12 main Olympic gods, from Hera, Athena, Apollo all the way to Hermes. He clarified the stories by mentioning those characters in Roman mythology. If you have any inkling of wanting to read about these ancient myths, I can’t think of a better place to start. Given that Fry is an actor, director, writer, and narrator, listening to his self-narrations was quite wonderful.

 

I looked at some of the criticisms of Fry’s writing which seem to come primarily from academics who found fault in some of his stories for accuracy. Perhaps as once having been a student of ancient times, I should be offended by the moments when he strayed from a rigorous path. But, I’m not in the least bit critical. This book was nothing short of fun. In one review on Reddit, a critic wrote that Fry was not a Hellenist, rather a “humanist atheist.” (There are several possible definitions Of Hellenist, but it mostly refers to a student or scholar who studies the Greek language, literature, history, or culture. I take it that a human atheist means a human who does not believe in the existence of God or gods.) I don’t find those words as cause for criticism of the book. Fry notes that he does not try to interpret the myths, but rather just tell the stories, and he does beautifully. Since this is actually a four-book series, next up for me will be Heroes.

Love the Stranger

 

 Love the Stranger (A Queens Mystery) by Michael Sears is a murder mystery that takes place in Queens, NY. Although it’s his first book reviewed in this blog, it is the second novel in the Queens Mystery series and at least his ninth crime novel. It was published in 2024. Sears described Queens as being a community that was far more than just a melting pot of people from all corners of the world who were just trying to eke out a living. Sears wrote that Queens was a “kaleidoscope of colors, classes, and ethnicities.” The book includes a great cast of characters including Kenzie Zielinski, a woman who worked as a community organizer. Currently she had taken on a wealthy and well-placed man in Queens who wanted to build a skyscraper which she thought would destroy the quality of the neighborhood. She lived with her boyfriend Ted Molloy, a lawyer with a most colorful past, and his law partner, Lester Young McKinley. They all shared and office and sometimes employed Mohammed, a Yemini immigrant to be their driver. Hanging over all the immigrants was the presence of ICE.

 

In addition to her work to defeat the building of the skyscraper, Kenzie was pulled into a murder mystery when it was obvious that the lawyer that Mohammed’s lawyer who was supposed to be helping with his immigration status was just cheating him out of fees, and claimed that Mohammed still owed him an impossible debt of $1,000. When Kenzie went to the law office of Howard Spitzer, she found Spitzer on the floor having been shot. Although she called the cops, since she was thought to be the last one who had seen Spitzer alive, she became a prime suspect in this matter. Ted and Lester were managing the lawsuit that Kenzie had filed against the landowner Ron Reisner, and their efforts were complicated when it was discovered a mole had been working in their office, and she was leaking their plans to Reisner’s people.

 

Sears introduced more characters on both sides of this matter, so there were additional subplots, all of which he brought to a satisfying end. I haven’t even gotten to Lester’s decision to loan money to a mobster. This book was hard to put down, so I had a couple late nights as I was caught up in the plot and characters. That’s enough information to help you know why I’m now a fan of Michael Sears. I’m not sure which of his earlier book I’ll grab next, but I plan to read more of his work.

The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

 I’ve reviewed six of Dugoni’s novels, all of which were in the thriller/murder mystery genre. Six books means that I like his writing. This story was referred to me by my daughter who is the communications director of a substantial nonprofit called Orbis. Orbis is known as the flying eye hospital which provides ophthalmologic care to people in economically poor countries around the world. In the course of the story, Sam went to work for Orbis as a means of escaping the traumas he had experienced at home.

Sam Hell, actually Sam Hill, had been born with a genetic flaw that led to his diagnosis of ocular albinism. He had no pigment in his irises which made his eyes look red. His condition was rare and he seemed to be immediately rejected by the medical community as well as the people at his Catholic church where his mother had been a devout and dedicated woman. When he got to school age, Sam found that the parochial school’s head mistress, Sister Beatrice, wanted to ban him from her school. Sam’s mother won the battle with Sister Beatrice, and despite his admission to the school, she continued to try to set him up for failure. His peers at school immediately rejected Sam who they dubbed as “the devil boy,” therefore “Sam Hell.” It was a nickname that stuck with Sam the rest of his life.

 

It was a school bully, David Bateman, who began to repeatedly abuse him, and it was only after the intensity of the abuse was discovered that Bateman was expelled. However, Bateman was to come back into the picture when these two antagonists were adult men. Through elementary and middle school Sam protected himself from further rejection by being a loner. It was not until the beginning of high school that he struck up good friendships with other students who were also being ostracized, Ernie, the only black in the school, and Mickie, a young woman from a highly dysfunctional and poor family. The three of them stuck together in what was a lifelong friendship.

 

Sam was academically successful as an ophthalmologist, but he had always been hindered in his ability to find other good relationships. It was his work as an ophthalmologist that led to his next encounter with Bateman when his wife brought their six-year-old daughter to his  office due to her visual problems. Sam quickly realized that her visual probems were due to repeated head trauma that had no doubt been caused by her father’s beatings. Bateman’s wife was so terrified of her husband, it took her a while to admit the abuse. Bateman worked as a cop and had developed into a full-blown psychopath.

 

I’ve revealed the main plot lines and I refuse to be a spoiler by revealing too much. Dugoni has provided fascinating characters who felt quite real. I learned to love Sam, his parents, Ernie, and Mickie. I also learned to hate Sister Beatrice and Bateman. It takes a great author to evoke such intense feelings in me.

 

My only problem with the story came at the end. As Dugoni nicely resolved the various plots and subplots, as Sam’s parents aged and got quite ill, he reexamined his lifelong atheism  which he had achieved largely by rebelling against his mother’s devotion to the church. He could not tolerate her repeated comments about all things being due to “God’s Will.” However, as he continued to encounter his own parents’ growing frailties, he began to reexamine his own beliefs. As he mourned the loss of his mother, he found himself praying and using his mother’s rosary. Perhaps most other readers won’t have as strong a negative reaction to Dugoni’s descriptions in this regard, but I also found that it did not negatively impact my feelings about his entire book. This is a story that’s worth reading, all the way to the end. It gets my strongest, 5/5 recommendation.

Leverage by Amran Gowani

 Full Disclosure: I know next to nothing about the world of high finance. What they do. How they do it. What's legal or illegal or what's a bit of both. It's all a mystery to me. 

The setting is Prism, a high flying west coast-based hedge fund (see full disclosure. A 'hedge fund' boggles my pea brain). Within  Prism are a number of themed funds (like real estate, IT, etc.) one of which is run by an up and coming star Ali Jafar ('Al' or any number of identity politic nicknames). The boss is Paul Kingsley, a financial genius, master manipulator, and a world class bully. His #2 is his son Brad who is also a bully with an ultimate goal of overthrowing dear old dad and take Prism for himself. 

Seems like each investment Al makes turns to gold and that means more money for Prism and for Kingsley. That's his history. Crack researcher and adept of finding opportunities others have missed. Until one of his investments tanks resulting in a $300 million loss for Prism. Called on the carpet by Kingsley, Al is given an ultimatum. Get back to doing what he does best and earn back the lost $300M . . . within 3 months or Paul will let it leak to regulators that some of Prisms shady dealings can be traced directly back to Al. Apparently the crimes would be sufficient to put Al away for decades. Think Bernie Madoff level of treachery. 

So now Al has to call in a few chips, accept aid from unknown sources, keep his ear to the ground, digdigdig, get into bed with other ne'er to wells in an attempt to score returns sufficient enough to satisfy Paul, keep his own hair, not attract the attention of federal regulators or get himself killed in the process. All within 3 months. 

Guessing this book would be liked by fans of Succession (of which I may be one of the few). And the give and take of money and the various forms of graft are above my head. Way above my head. So while the story is fast-paced, contains a bunch of "Karen" and "Todd" characters, (and that Al has a bit of a self-gratification habit), readers like me who just don't 'get' finance at this level, are probably not the target audience. On one level, the story was downright Shakespearean with the envious son trying to overthrow the tyrant father by using various underlings to achieve his goals. 

I do appreciate Atria books for the advance copy. I got this copy in early/mid summer and just now getting around to reading it so I hope the grammatical slips common to content development get corrected in the commercial version that is set for publication 19 AUG 2025. 

 

East Coast Don 

Disappearance of a Scribe

I was looking for fiction or nonfiction stories that took place in Egypt, in anticipation of a trip there, and I ran across this book by Dana Stabenow entitled Disappearance of a Scribe. The story takes place in 47 BCE, the time of Cleopatra and is centered in Alexandria. Caesar had returned to Rome after a war, and Cleopatra was left to lead the recovery of her kingdom. When a body was discovered in the Nile after someone had put a man with his feet in cement and then drowned. A second body was similarly found. Cleopatra turned to another woman who she trusted, Tetisheri, to investigate and solve the mystery of the deaths.

 

Tetisheri was new to her role as the Eye of Isis, who only reported to Cleopatra and she was mostly disregarded by her colleagues on the police force. Corruption was everywhere. Tetisheri was actually a wonderful character who was determined not to let the inherent misogyny of the times thwart her efforts. The author led the reader through a picture of what life must has been like in those times, from lowly slaves to the palace elite. Scribes were very important to the society since most of the population was illiterate, and it was necessary to keep good records, especially if you were a builder on behalf of the queen. I enjoyed the story and felt it was worth my time to read it.

This is actually the second Stabenow book reviewed in tis blog. 16 years ago, ECD reviewed A Grave Denied in favorable terms. She is a prolific author of 45-50 novels, who is most famous for the 23 novels in her Kate Shugak series. Ms. Stabenow’s novels are certainly worth revisiting.

King of Ashes by SA Cosby

Who wouldn't want to live the life of Roman Carruthers?  Living large in Atlanta. Financial whiz. Knows his way around investments. Makes his clients a bundle. And a bit of a hedonist, but we can't all be perfect. Regardless, life is good for Roman . . . 

Until his sister Naveah calls from his home in Jefferson Run, VA - a bit down the road from Richmond - telling him that their father was in a hit-and-run accident, is in a coma at the nearby hospital and that their younger brother Dante is worthless when it comes to helping out. Roman bolts for VA to help the family he left behind, and to make sure the family business,  a successful crematorium now completely run by Naveah, continues. 

When Roman finally gets Dante somewhat sober, he learns that Dante and a bud did a couple really dumb things. First, they got into bed with the local gang (BBB; Black Baron Boys) to front them some drugs to sell. If that wasn't dump enough, they thought it'd be fun to sample a little of their wares. BBB wouldn't miss a little product, right? Well, they more than sampled. Probably were halfway through their stash by the time they realized they'd really screwed up and the BBB wants their money . . . now. 

Roman tries to talk with the brothers at the top of the gang. They go by Tranquil and Torrent. A couple of skilled 'businessmen' not known to suffer fools for even a nanosecond. They'll snuff out anyone who's wronged them. When Roman's financial bullshit fails to sway the tide, the brothers beat the teeth our of Roman and cut off one of Dante's fingers for wasting their time. Roman works out a deal to repay the BBB for their lost income and get Dante out from their terror, he thinks. One of of the promises he makes is to use the family business to help BBB clean up the debris inherent to their business.

And that's just the beginning. The BBB boys round up Dante's partner and girlfriend, deliver them to Roman so that Roman can do what the family business does best. One of the BBB soldiers leaves (can't watch what's going to happen). That's about when Dante uses a tire iron on the other soldier. Roman now has to add that guy to the ovens. The BBB is expecting guy and girlfriend to be dust, but instead, the girl is spared and told in no uncertain terms to get far away from Jefferson Run or others, like all the Carruthers, will die a horribly gruesome death. 

Roman knows he is in over his head, but has a plan, with the help of an Atlanta friend Khalil, a former Army Ranger who is extremely capable. Think of his as Roman's Joe Pike. Capable. Very Capable.

Between Roman's conniving and Khalil's skills, Roman works his way into the BBB's good graces by laundering their drug profits into stinking wealth beyond their dreams while Khalil keeps the BBB looking over both shoulders for what they figure is a rival gang trying to take over the territory. What Roman really wants is to make Tranquil and Torrence suffer. Seriously suffer. Destroy the BBB and kill anyone who gets in the way.

Southern, gothic, country noir at its finest. Roman is successful with an undercurrent of treachery that slowly boils until an explosive conclusion. Dante is just a kid party boy who is constantly stoned, high, drunk, and screwing around with little thought to consequences. Naveah is the family's rock trying to hold it all together while Roman tries to keep her above the fray. In some ways, she is the heroine whose quiet strength is needed by both brothers. This isn't a tale of drugs and greed.  No, that's too eash. This is a story about the extremes one will go to protect family . . . with a little help from Khalil. 

Bottom line? Another in an unbroken line of winners from Sean (SA) Cosby. Run out and get this one, boys and girls. No joke. Get it. 

 

East Coast Don

 

PS. Cosby can really put words together that makes his prose an entertaining read. To wit:

'Dante was as high as the price of gas.'

'Her dress clung to her like an insecure lover.'

'I used to be afraid the universe was evil. Now I almost wish it was. Because evil can be bargained with, evil has a purpose, no matter how horrible it may be. But what I've come to realize is the universe is indifferent, and that is so much more terrifying.' 

'At night it was as dark as a politician's soul.' 

'Sometimes the man wearing the crown ain't the man that's supposed to be king.'

'Roman had lost a lot in life, but he knew one thing. He'd never been defeated.' 

The Blockchain Syndicate

 

The Blockchain Syndicate by Robbie Bach is his second novel and the first reviewed in this blog. It’s a contemporary thriller, and make no mistake, it is a thriller that grabbed me at page one. This novel is based on the notion that with little organization and small funding, on January 6^th 2021, an unruly and disorganized mob stormed the U.S. Capital building and temporarily interfered with the peaceful transition of power from Trump to Biden. Bach wrote of very wealthy men who opined that it was improper government regulations that kept them having even more influence and more wealth. Therefore, they thought it was only proper that the government be overturned. The book was about those well-funded and well-organized efforts to defeat America’s democratic government.

 

Bach created great characters, both good guys and bad ones. The protagonist was Tamika Smith, the daughter of an army man, General Smith, so she was really an army brat, having grown up on military bases around the world. After tours of military duty in which she was heroic, she successfully ran for the Senate in the State of Washington. She was a formidable woman who found herself as being critical in stopping the equally powerful bad guys. She had fallen in love with a divorced man, Johnny Humboldt, who had two children, and it was especially his teenage daughter, Phoenix Humboldt who had taken to Tamika, much to her mother’s dismay. Thinking about Tamika, what would you do if someone wanted to stop you from your democracy-saving plans, who went so far as to wound Phoenix in a school shooting, and who kidnapped the man you loved in an attempt to shut her up? Tamika's enemy was a female assassin, an other solid member of Bach's cast.

 

Bach’s plot was well designed, and the story was filled with believable people. After getting hook on the first page, I just kept reading until I finished the story. This novel gets my highest recommendation, and it’s now obvious to me that I need to go back and read his first novel, The Wilkes Insurrection.