2011; 248 pages. New Author? : Yes. Genre : Action-Adventure. Overall Rating : 5½*/10.
The
long-lost archaeological treasures that Heinrich Schliemann uncovered at Troy
have been located. Unfortunately,
they’re inside a compound in the Colombian jungle, owned by a Nazi war criminal
and guarded by a drug cartel.
Three adventurers are sent to try to retrieve the priceless artifacts :
the Israeli, David Morritt, the Greek, Katrina Kontoravdis; and the Turk,
“Duman”. But they’re not a team; they’re
in fierce competition with each other.
And one of them is a highly-trained assassin.
What’s To Like...
The Schliemann Legacy is non-stop action from the
first page to the last. There’s also
some romance, and the historical flashbacks to the Holocaust will give you
chills. The settings are great – Paris,
Colombia, and Jamaica; and D.A. Graystone adds a nice twist in the form of a
game master who manipulates the three protagonists as if he was running an
Dungeons and Dragons campaign. There is
a little bit of cussing, some sex, and lots of violence. For some of us, that’s a plus.
The
characters are black and white. More on this in a bit. You can see the
romance coming a mile away. Some of the secondary characters – Helene,
for instance – are more interesting than the main ones. The game master’s resources and methods are
never really explained and the question that intrigued me – should the
artifacts be given to Greece or Turkey – is never explored. There are some WTF moments, although no worse than in a James Bond tale.
The ending is muddled, with loose strings galore. It is only passable if there’s a sequel to
tie things up, and ANAICT, the author isn’t working on one.
Excerpts...
“I just don’t like the man,” Erhart said. “He’s a sadistic killer, a psychotic, a
maniac…”
“Nonsense.
There is no reason to distrust him.
He’s not psychotic. He’s simply a
man with a passionate dream. It just
happens he believes violence is the key to realizing his dream.” (loc. 178)
Certain noise belonged to the natural
environment of every home – a dripping tap, the whisper of air conditioning,
the crack of a settling foundation. But
other sounds belonged to the enemy – a click of a shoe, controlled breathing,
the cocking of a gun. These sounds would
betray a waiting attack. The difficulty,
as every frightened child knows, lay in distinguishing between the two types of
noises. (loc. 2624)
Kindle Details...
The Schliemann Legacy sells for $2.99 at Amazon. D.A. Graystone has one other book available
for the Kindle, Two Graves: A Kesle City Homicide
Novel , but it I don’t think it’s related to this one.
“Without law, we become our enemy.” (loc. 2678)
As
a story, The Schliemann Legacy is
okay – the technical weaknesses being balanced out by the constant action. Unfortunately, the author seems to have an agenda, and
that agenda is to promote Zionism.
I’m cool with recounting the Nazi atrocities; that part of history
cannot be told often enough. But D.A.
Graystone doesn’t stop there. The
British are evil because they were administering Palestine right after
WW2. All Palestinian Arabs are bad,
too. And all Turks. And Frenchmen, except they are also fat.
And Israeli “doves”. And
Communists, but he couldn’t squeeze them anywhere into the plotline, so he disses
them in Katrina’s backstory. Only Israeli hardliners are good.
This would have been a better book without the political
preaching. 5½ Stars. Add one more star if you happen to be a
Zionist, and think that Daniel Silva is one heckuva storyteller.
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