Author: Boyd Morrison
Publisher: Sphere
Publication Date: 4th August 2011
Pages: 512
ISBN: 9780751544305
Source: Library
Rating: 4/5
Purchase: Amazon
Can an ancient manuscript reveal the whereabouts of King Midas' famous treasure?
Top army engineer Tyler Locke is given a mysterious ancient manuscript. Written in Greek, it initially seems indecipherable.
But with the help of classics scholar Stacy Benedict, Locke comes to understand that this manuscript could provide the clues to the greatest riches known to mankind - the legendary treasure of King Midas.
However, there are others who are also hot on the trail - and it rapidly becomes a race against time to crack a code that is both fiendishly difficult and potentially deadly....
I recently borrowed Boyd Morrison's Tyler Locke novels from the library and having loved The Noah's Ark Quest as much as I did, I couldn't wait to get started with book two, The Midas Code. I read this book in just over a day, picking it up at pretty much every available second I had and then thinking about in those that I didn't have. It was a thrilling read from start to finish.
I say this all the time but I was gripped from very early on. There's no messing about with Boyd Morrison, he just gets down to business from the word go and the action doesn't let up until the final page. This time around the basis for the story sounds very far-fetched and I wondered just how Morrison would make the whole thing either believable and/or plausible. I'll just say that he absolutely does, and it was brilliant. I spent the book on edge, desperate to know how things were going to pan out. Rather than confuse me as these books often do, the plot was actually easy to follow despite there being some very complicated puzzles for our characters to solve. Morrison doesn't attempt to educate the reader, everything is done in a subtle way that doesn't detract from the reading experience.
Tyler Locke is not dissimilar to other protagonists in this genre, but I'm fast becoming a fan of him and his partner Grant. Locke reminds me of another Lock, without the e, and that's Ryan Lock, one of my favourite thriller characters. I imagine if Sean Black ever turned his hand to writing a historical thriller it would read a little something like this. Of course there's a female along for the ride, this time around it's Stacy Benedict and what I liked in the beginning was she wasn't a total damsel in distress. With Tyler though and this being book two I do feel the book perhaps loses a little bit of tension and/or excitement. The scrapes he finds himself in are never going to result in his death (unless Morrison one day ends the series).
The book is a Hollywood blockbuster in the making, albeit an insanely expensive one. I know some people criticise the action-packed scene after action-packed scene but that's what I want when I pick up a book like this. Tyler went from escaping on a horse to speeding down the autobahn in what felt like seconds and that's without everything else that went on in between. The bad guys of the piece are brilliant, and there's scope for plenty of twists along the way. Tyler is recruited - albeit against his will - to locate the legendary treasure of King Midas, somebody wants to become seriously rich, and they are using Tyler to achieve that. The only problem? Somebody else is hot on the trail of the treasure... Tyler is soon fighting to save not only his own life but those close to him. The last quarter of this book was just fantastic, real edge of your seat stuff with a totally thrilling conclusion. I can't wait to read another Boyd Morrison book.
4/5
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