Napoleon's Pyramids

Overview

What mystical secrets lie beneath the Great Pyramids? Traveling with Napoleon's ambitious expedition, American adventurer Ethan Gage solves a five-thousand-year-old riddle with the help of a mysterious medallion.

William Dietrich's books have been hailed for their vivid imagery, evocative atmospheres, impeccable historical accuracy, and ambitious plots. Now, in the breakout novel of his career, he delivers an enthralling story of intrigue, greed, and danger.

Ethan Gage, assistant to Ben Franklin and expatriate American in post-revolutionary France, wins an ancient--and possibly cursed--medallion in a card game one night. It turns out that the medallion, covered in seemingly indecipherable symbols, may be linked to a Masonic mystery. That same night, however, Ethan is framed for a prostitute's murder and barely escapes France with his life.

Faced with either prison or death, Gage is offered a third choice: to accompany the new emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, as France sails to conquer Egypt--with Lord Nelson's fleet following close behind. Once Gage arrives, he encounters incredible surprises: one in the form of a beautiful Macedonian slave and another in the dawning knowledge that the medallion may solve one of the greatest riddles of history--who built the Great Pyramids, and why. What is revealed to Gage is more shocking than anyone could ever have imagined.

Moving from the lascivious salons of post-revolutionary Paris to the Mediterranean's high seas to the treacherous sands of Egypt, Napoleon's Pyramids is a riveting, action-packed thriller that will captivate readers and introduce them to this supremely talented author.

Editorial Reviews

At the start of Dietrich's superb historical thriller, his swashbuckling hero, American Ethan Gage, who's living in Paris during the waning days of the French Revolution and was once apprenticed to Benjamin Franklin, wins a curious Egyptian medallion in a card game. Soon after, he's set upon by thieves, chased by the police, attacked by bandits, befriended by Gypsies, saved by a British spy and then packed off to join Napoleon's army as it embarks on its ill-fated Egyptian campaign. There the story really heats up. Once in Egypt, Gage finds himself beset by evildoers bent on stealing the mysterious medallion. As in previous novels like Hadrian's Wall and Scourge of God, Dietrich combines a likable hero surrounded by a cast of fascinating historical characters. Riveting battle scenes, scantily clad women, mathematical puzzles, mysteries of the pharaohs, reckless heroism, hairsbreadth escapes and undaunted courage add up to unbeatable adventure rivaling the exploits of George Macdonald Fraser's Harry Flashman. Readers will cheer as the indomitable Gage floats off in a runaway hot-air balloon, hard on the trail of his next exotic undertaking. Author tour. (Feb.)
Copyright (c) Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
-- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of William Dietrich

William (Bill) Dietrich's historical and action thrillers have been translated into 28 languages. Dietrich is also a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, nonfiction author, and college professor of environmental journalism. He has won the Washington Governor Writer's Award and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award. He currently is exciting readers with his Ethan Gage Adventures, a series featuring an imperfect American adventurer who is not only a protege of the late Benjamin Franklin--but also a gambler, sharpshooter, treasure-hunter and romantic, who manages to get into plenty of trouble with women. Ethan's story entwines with Napoleon Bonaparte's, whom he first meets in Napoleon's Pyramids and is later allied to and odds with in The Rosetta Key and The Dakota Cipher. A fourth novel for the series is in the works. Dietrich also wrote the Roman-era historical novels Hadrian's Wall and The Scourge of God as well as the earlier thrillers Ice Reich, Getting Back, and Dark Winter. His book-writing began with The Final Forest: The Battle For The Last Great Trees of the Pacific Northwest and Northwest Passage: The Great Columbia River. A collection of nature essays that first appeared in The Seattle Times is titled Natural Grace. He wrote the text for the Art Wolfe photo book On Puget Sound and essays for books on Skagit and Whatcom counties and Fidalgo Island, his home stomping grounds in the state of Washington. He writes and speaks frequently on the environment. Dietrich's love of history and fiction was nurtured when growing up in Tacoma. He caught the journalism bug when studying at Fairhaven College and Western Washington University (WWU), where he married his wife Holly. Journalism jobs followed in the Northwest and Washington, D.C., including covering the eruption of Mount St. Helens for the Vancouver, Washington Columbian and the Exxon Valdez oil spill for The Seattle Times. Bill was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and the recipient of National Science Foundation fellowships that got him to Antarctica and the South Pole, which inspired his first novel. His first book wasn't started until he was 38, and the first novel--roughed out on an icebreaker--wasn't underway until he was 45. Some men get a sports car in midlife; Bill wrote about Nazis. In 2006 he began teaching and advising a student magazine called The Planet at his alma mater, WWU. He feels fortunate to have been able to bounce between the fiction and journalism worlds and to be reenergized by his students. He and Holly live on the edge of Washington's San Juan Islands within eyeball distance of three national parks, but Dietrich loves visiting great cities and crawling around old ruins. He has two grown daughters and can see bald eagles, herons, and raccoons from his office window.

Customer Reviews

• Great Historical Fiction

  Posted October 15, 2009 by Matt, San Diego

  William Dietrich does a great job of weaving historical fact (or as much of history as can be considered fact) with a first rate suspense thriller. If you enjoy James Connelly, Dan Brown, and Michael Gruber then you will really enjoy this novel. Provides a nice historical backdrop of Napoleon's conquest of Egypt in the late 18th and early 19th century.

Additional Info

Imprint

HarperCollins

Filesize

1.49 MB

Number of Pages

432

eBook ISBN

9780061457760