Sussman solves the riddle of the sands
TIME-SHIFT THRILLER
THIS IS the fourth and, tragically, the last thriller from the bestselling author Paul Sussman who died suddenly in May at the age of 45.
Sussman received a proof of his new novel just five days before his death, and he was eagerly anticipating its publication because he rated this the best of his books.
He was right. The Labyrinth Of Osiris is an absolutely top-notch thriller — captivating, intelligent and notably well-written, with a depth of characterisation which most thrillers don’t usually even attempt.
Like its three predecessors, this novel combines a modern detective story with Egyptian archaeology. It might sound unpromising, but in Sussman’s hands that combination works impressively well.
Stars of the show are Sussman’s Egyptian detective, Yusuf Khalifa, teamed up once more with his sparring partner and friend, Israeli detective Arieh Ben-Roi, who is investigating the murder of a middle- aged woman, garrotted in an expert assassination in the Armenian cathedral in Jerusalem.
Who could have ordered this hit? There’s no shortage of suspects, because the victim was an investigative journalist who’d had death threats from Hamas, hardline Jewish settlers, and the Russian mafia.
She’d also recently been making powerful new enemies in Israel’s sex- trafficking industry.
That’s but one of the strands of a plot that’s got as many tangled connections as the back of a TV: an anti-capitalist terror campaign in Israel; the strange case of poisoned water wells in Egypt; and Khalifa’s discovery of a 40year-old murder case, which in turn leads to a far older mystery — that of a vast, secret labyrinth beneath the Egyptian desert.
Sussman’s plotting is terrific, as is the confidence with which he allows his story, with its richly detailed contexts and characters, time to develop: Ben-Roi’s approaching fatherhood, Khalifa’s enduring grief for his dead son, the fraught atmosphere of Jerusalem and the enduring chaos and corruption of post-Mubarak Egypt.
To date, Sussman’s thrillers, all starring Yusuf Khalifa, have been translated into 33 languages and have sold over two million copies worldwide.
This, his final book, deserves to be even more successful.