Sphinx - T.S. Learner

Spinx by T.S. Learner. Published by Sphere / Little Brown, 2010.

I'd never heard of T.S. Learner, but when I spotted her book Sphinx on sale at a bookstore, I decided to give it a go. The bookflap promises intrigue and a race against time in Egypt set in the seventies, as Oliver Warnock must protect a powerful ancient artefact excaved by his late wife, and it recommends this book to lovers of Dan Brown and Kate Mosse. Whilst I've never read a book by Kate Mosse, I do love a bit of Dan Brown (secretly, I'm always very excited when a new Robert Langdon book comes out). And after having read Sphinx, I will stick to Dan Brown rather than T.S. Learner.

Not all is bad about Sphinx, but it does take quite a long time before the book starts becoming any good. The book is over 500 pages long, and I personally found the first 200 pages rather boring. This is because these pages focus on Isabella Warnock's death and how Oliver is grieving; there is not enough attention given to the race for the artefact (an astrarium) and everything is still a bit unclear. The latter is something that is an issue with the majority of the book. There is so little information given on the astrarium and why all these people want it (and also on who these people are), that the full explanation near the end of the book seems to rush over it all a bit and sort of falls out of the air. 

Between pages 200 and 250 the story finally starts to pick up speed, but there is simply not enough to make up for those first 200 pages. Especially because the story is sometimes interrupted again on how hard life is for Oliver and his affair / friendship with his old flame Rachel. Then there are some really bad scenes which feel like they came straight out of a cheap romance novel, which really annoyed me. The story was finally going somewhere, and then it's interrupted with these terrible scenes. 

Now what I did like about the book (like I said, it's not all bad) are the parts of Egyptian history and Egyptology throughout the book. T.S. Learner did her research, as there is a list of books she used to base her story on. This shines through in the book. Of course, the astrarium itself is nonsense, but all the other information is correct and actually teaches you something of Egyption history and mythology. And this would be the only reason for me to recommend this book to someone else.

All in all, Sphinx did not live up to my expectations. I was looking for an exciting book with its main focus on intrigue and a race to protect some sort of artefact, but the book focused more on Oliver's grief for Isabella and how he learns to cope with this loss. I'm not saying that that's necessarily bad, but it's just not what I wanted from this book. So if your main interest in books is romance, then this might be more up your alley. Personally, I'll probably donate Sphinx to a secondhand shop, as I'm fairly certain I won't be picking it up again.

Ratings: 2 out of 5

Do you appreciate reviews on books you shouldn't pick up, or do you rather just read reviews on books you should definitely read?