Fast action, flaky plot

Andy McDermott’s archaeologist heroine Nina Wilde is back. In Cult of Osiris, she, along with her ex-SAS husband Eddie Chase, goes on a roller-coaster ride trying to stop a neo-religious fanatic from world dominion. The book begins at an Egyptian archaeology dig at the Sphinx where an ancient repository of scrolls is about to be uncovered. But there is more to it... Underneath the Sphinx is also a star map that points the way to the fabled pyramid of Osiris, the man-god. But some bad guys are trying to take it out before the digging team actually breaks in. Unfortunately for them, archaeology student Macy Sharif stumbles upon their plan and alerts Nina Wilde in the US. Game on. From Egypt to the US, then to Monaco and to Switzerland and back to Egypt, our team — Wilde, Chase and Sharif — tries to thwart Osir, the leader of the Cult of Osiris, and his brother Shaban. They do so in a spectacular fashion — by destroying a Lamborghini in the US, smashing up a casino, a multi-million-dollar yacht and disrupting the Formula 1 race in Monaco, and blowing up an army hovercraft in Egypt. We learn that Osir is after the pyramid of Osiris to get samples of a special yeast that the demigod consumed which gave him long life. Osir plans to genetically modify the yeast and market lifespan-enhancing products that will make him immortal and the richest person in the world. His religion, the Cult of Osiris, is something like modern-day Scientology, with film stars and celebrities as members. As far as credibility goes, Cult of Osiris is, at best, mediocre. As an archaeologist who used to head her own archaeology department in the UN, Nina Wilde comes across as extremely uninformed. In the book she visits the pyramids for the first time (for a professional archaeologist, that’s unthinkable) and she has to continuously take the help of Macy Sharif for Egyptian history info and Macy’s still a student. Wilde follows an Indiana Jones-type approach to archaeology where brawn more often than brain gets the job done, the difference being that her husband Eddy provides the brawn. Compared to contemporary writers on conspiracy theories like Dan Brown, Steve Berry and James Rollins, Andy McDermott sadly lacks in plot and information. What makes the other three a pleasure to read are the little bits of information readers get and the bigger premise of “What If”. While Dan Brown is way ahead in providing general knowledge, Steve Berry and James Rollins take the cake in “what if” scenarios. Given the lack of detail in Cult of Osiris and Nina Wilde’s heavy-handed approach to her job, the book is, however, extremely fast-paced and the chase sequences are some of the best you will ever read (at times I had to hold the chair as Eddy cut another impossible corner). It’s almost as if McDermott was writing a screenplay instead of a book. In fact, the Daily Express says about McDermott, “A writer of rare cinematic talent” and that says it all: Low on plot and credibility, but high on action and stunts.