The pharaoh key : a Gideon Crew novel

Title:

Author:

Preston, Douglas J., author.

ISBN:

9781455525829

Personal Author:

Preston, Douglas J., author.

Edition:

First edition.

Publication Information:

New York : Grand Central Publishing, 2018.

Physical Description:

311 pages ; 24 cm.

Series:

A Gideon Crew novel ; book 5

Gideon Crew novel ; book 5.

Abstract:

Gideon Crew--brilliant scientist, master thief, intrepid adventurer--is shocked when his former employer, Eli Glinn, vanishes without a trace, and Glinn's high-tech lab Effective Engineering Solutions shuts down seemingly overnight. Fresh off a diagnosis that gives him only months to live, Crew is contacted by one of his former coworkers at EES, Manuel Garza, who has a bead on one final treasure hinted at in EES's final case, the long-awaited translation of a centuries-old stone tablet of a previously undiscovered civilization: The Phaistos Disc. What lies at the end of the trail will either save Gideon's life--or bring it to a sudden, shocking close. Crew once again faces incredible odds--but as Gideon has proved again and again, there's no such thing as too great a risk when you're living on borrowed time.

Personal Subject:

Crew, Gideon (Fictitious character)-Fiction.

Subject Term:

Antiquities -- Fiction.

Genre:

Action and adventure fiction.

Thrillers (Fiction)

Science fiction.

Added Author:

Child, Lincoln,

Document ID:

SD_ILS:2287868

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

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Summary

Don't miss the this exciting, New York Times bestselling adventure from Preston & Child, in which the secrets of a mysterious ancient tablet may point the way to untold treasure--or unspeakable danger.
"I just want to be crystal clear about this: if it has value, we're gonna steal it. Are you with me?" Effective Engineering Solutions has been inexplicably shut down and the head of the company, Eli Glinn, has all but vanished. Fresh off a diagnosis that gives him only months to live, Gideon Crew is contacted by one of his coworkers at EES, Manuel Garza, who tells him the two have mere hours to collect their belongings before the office closes forever. After years of dedicated service and several high-risk missions, theirs seems like the most ignoble of terminations-until Gideon and Garza happen upon an incredible discovery. After centuries of silence, a code-breaking machine at EES has cracked the long-awaited translation of a centuries-old stone tablet, the Phaistos Disc, that dates back to an otherwise completely unknown, ancient civilization. The mysteries of the message itself hint at incredible treasures, and perhaps even a world-altering secret. No one remains at EES to take on this most remarkable mission but Gideon and Garza. The two agree to solve the mystery of the disc's message and split the spoils: the perfect parting gift their employer doesn't know he has given. What lies at the end of the trail may save Gideon's life-or bring it to a sudden, shocking close. As Gideon and Garza soon discover, some missions are more dangerous than others. But as Gideon has proved again and again, there's no such thing as too great a risk when you're living on borrowed time.

Author Notes

Douglas Jerome Preston was born on May 20, 1956 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He received a B.A. in English literature from Pomona College in 1978. His career began at the American Museum of Natural History, where he worked as an editor and writer from 1978 to 1985. He also was a lecturer in English at Princeton University.

He became a full-time writer of both fiction and nonfiction books in 1986. Many of his fiction works are co-written with Lincoln Child including Relic, Riptide, Thunderhead, The Wheel of Darkness, Cemetery Dance, and Gideon's Corpse. His nonfiction works include Dinosaurs in the Attic; Cities of Gold: A Journey Across the American Southwest in Pursuit of Coronado; Talking to the Ground; and The Royal Road. He has written for numerous magazines including The New Yorker; Natural History; Harper's; Smithsonian; National Geographic; and Travel and Leisure. He became a New York Times Best Selling author with his titles Two Graves and Crimson Shores which he co-wrote with Lincoln Child, and his titles White Fire, The Lost Island Blue Labyrinth and The Lost City of the Monkey God.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

The entertaining fifth Gideon Crew novel from bestsellers Preston and Child (after 2016's Beyond the Ice Limit) takes professional thief Gideon and his courageous sidekick, Manuel Garza, from New York City-where their employer, Effective Engineering Solutions, has suddenly ceased operations-to Egypt in search of a treasure that was the object of EES's last, unfinished case. Before their departure, Gideon and Manuel make a final visit to EES's Manhattan office, where they surreptitiously download a picture of the ancient Phaistos Disk; they soon succeed in breaking the code inscribed on the disk and revealing the treasure's exact location in the Hala'ib Triangle. In the course of their quest, Gideon and Garza escape from a sinking ship on the Red Sea, join forces with an attractive British geologist named Imogen Blackburn, and discover a lost civilization in a remote valley. The authors keep the tone light and the reader guessing right up to the open ending, which leaves some major plot points unresolved. Fans of the Indiana Jones movies will find plenty to like. Agent: Eric Simonoff, WME. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

Doomed by a fatal illness, Gideon Crew embarks on one wild, series-ending adventure (Beyond the Ice Limit, 2016, etc.).Crew has AVM, a brain malformation that will kill him in about two months, although he'll feel fine until his sudden death. He and his engineer colleague Manuel Garza lose their jobs with no warning when their employer, Effective Engineering Solutions, suddenly stops paying them and shuts down without a word of explanation. While they're cleaning out their desks, they discover that a computer in the office has just finished a calculation that it's been working on for 43,000 hoursalmost five years. Garza sticks a USB drive in the computer and downloads the information, which is about a secret project to decipher the ancient Phaistos Disk. Garza proposes that they find whatever treasure it may lead to and sell it "for the most dough we possibly can," no matter what it turns out to be, even if it's a "fucking centerfold of the Mona Lisa." So they trek to the desolate Hala'ib Triangle in southeastern Egypt, a journey involving one blasted thing after another. They ride an ancient ferry that sinks on the Red Sea, drowning hundreds. A woman outbids Crew and Garza when they try to rent camels, their guide cheats them, and they nearly die of thirst in the desert, where they try to survive a haboob"the worst kind of dust storm"and find a "mist oasis." The pace never slackens as they get closer to the GPS coordinates they're looking for, and they have an encounter that changes everything. Crew's legerdemain and Garza's nifty engineering skills get them out of serious jams but may not save them from the one-eyed leopard or the fearsome warrior who is determined to fight Garza to the death. Through all of this, Crew faces the ultimate clock, the one ticking inside his brain. This is a cleverly plotted yarn with some laugh-out-loud twists, the best ones involving Garza's bravery and ingenuity. There are numerous references to earlier books in the series, and fans might like to read Beyond the Ice Limit first. Still, this book stands alone just fine.When the end of a book with a dying hero makes the reader laugh, that's a neat trick. This is a great cap on the series. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Here's the bad news: Gideon Crew, the adventurer-hero of four previous novels by the Preston-Child writing team, has been given only months to live. It looks like illness will do what numerous adversaries have failed to accomplish. But, first, Gideon has one last adventure to complete. Manuel Garza, a friend and colleague, asks Gideon to help solve a mystery and, just maybe, find an ancient treasure. This is an entertaining and suspenseful thriller from a team that specializes in exciting and suspenseful (they're perhaps better known as the authors of the Special Agent Pendergast series); the writing is fluid, the story is appropriately labyrinthine, and the Gideon-Garza interplay may remind some of the Hope-Crosby Road movies. Although the press material accompanying the galley says it's the fifth and final Gideon Crew novel, the ending leaves plenty of room for further adventures. So here's hopin'.--David Pitt Copyright 2018 Booklist