The Egyptian: A High-Speed Race for the Secret of Eternal Life

The search for eternal youth and life has been an obsession for mankind since the first humans could recognize their reflections in still water or understand their own mortality. In Layton Green’s The Egyptian, ancient myths of immortality meet modern day biotech’s search for long-term youth and life.

This is the second book in Green’s series featuring Dominic Grey and Viktor Radek, private investigators of cults. Grey, a former Diplomatic Security Service agent, is hired by an Egyptian biotech firm, to locate a stolen vial of the company’s new life extension elixir. Grey’s investigation takes him from New York to Bulgaria and finally to the deserts of Egypt. On the way, he picks up a beautiful freelance investigative journalist, a Bulgarian scientist, and a ne’er-do-well mercenary. Eventually, Grey figures out those who stole and vial are not necessarily the bad guys.

The Egyptian is a well-crafted novel with all the elements I particularly like—a mystery thriller with lots of historic facts, and good character development. There were a couple of times, however, when the story made me come to a screeching halt. For instance, the investigative reporter is said to work for the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO). I’m a former investigative journalist with some twenty years of experience in journalism, and I’ve never heard of a non-government organization like the WHO hiring an investigative reporter, freelance or otherwise. In another part of the book, Grey attempts to staunch the blood flowing from a bullet wound in a character’s back with a tourniquet. Tourniquets are used to stop bleeding from extremity wounds, not truncal wounds. I say this with the expertise of someone who has been a medic with the military, law enforcement, and disaster response teams, as well as a Navy analyst in combat medical capabilities.

These, however, are minor errors which probably wouldn’t be noticed by readers without my particular background, and I plan on reading more of this series in the near future.