Ex SAS soldier Ben Hope is asked for help by his old comrade, investigating the death of his son, who had been in Cairo working on a project to unearth hidden treasure.Ben sets off to Egypt and what follows is a fast paced, action packed adventure, with plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader entertained.Good characters, historical facts mixed with a little embellishment and you have a kind of cross between Bourne and Indiana Jones.I hadn't realised the book was part of a series, and reading this one definitely makes me want to trial the rest. I can't help thinking this would make a cracking movie too! Ben Hope returns, not entirely willingly for more thrills, spills and mayhem, crosses and double-crosses and let’s not forget mortal peril.The Heretic’s Treasure is slower to start than its elder siblings. That might have much to do with Ben’s attempts to lead a (relatively) normal life. I did find it easier to put the book down though and didn’t necessarily pick it up again for a couple of days. The previous three instalments in the Ben Hope series stole my attention completely whereas for the first half of this one, I remembered to do things like housework and going to sleep.Ben is Ben and we know him by now. It’s always good to return to a familiar character in a series and find he’s still himself. He still appreciates his weapons and has his own strict moral code. There’s no disappointment there.The layers of treachery are many as ever and we sometimes wish Ben had a better sense of smell for rats. If he did though, there’d be so much less plot. The villains this time round are good old nasty bits of work with so much more potential to do harm than ever before. They do make you wonder just how safe we all are whilst reading our Ben Hope books. Hope must be a man that’s beginning to loathe history as every time he must learn some more of it, the killing starts. The Heretic’s Treasure picks up nicely on the mysterious Akhenaten and the things his catastrophic rule of Egypt brought about. Millennia later his legacy, or what some people will do for it, still wreaks havoc for Ben. Because Ben was there though, no-one need ever know how close to world shattering things became.As I’ve said in reviews of the previous instalments, you might spot the twists long before they happen, but it’s about how Ben deals with them. He doesn’t have the benefit of sitting quietly, reading about it and has to get out of those situations somehow, often with more luck than judgement this time.Supporting characters are a little strange in this one. We spend a lot of time in the company of some of them and although they have a purpose in the story, we maybe didn’t need to know so much about them. I might read the next book and find out why, of course. It’s a series after all and characters can recur (unless they’re killed horribly as often happens when Ben’s around). There are some that are explored (did you read that as exploded? I did when I read it back!) in lots more detail than they need to be and some that could have been developed just that bit further. I did find myself thinking that more could have been done with the latter quarter of the story at the expense of some of the introduction and scene building. That’s just me though. Female characters aren’t as prevalent as personalities in this one. They’re more a source of strife and confusion for Ben. He is a man though, so it had to happen sometime.Will Ben go back into the full time hero trade after this? He can’t seem to escape it. I look forward to reading the next novel to find out.
What do You think about De Vloek Van De Farao (2011)?
As with Scott's previous books I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would recommend the series to anyone.
—Vtal223
Great read, Ben Hope saga is well worth a read great action no boring bits in the middle
—rockettnr
love these books ..fast paced and i love Ben Hope .
—6123
