AnHeC (I'm too fucking busy and vice versa)

Book won in a give-away.

Quite nice. Quite nice indeed. It's kind of an action book. You have a reporter, send on an assignment to Israel. He gets in trouble with like, you know terrorists. So mystery/action with a sprinkling of romance.

My thoughts? The best parts of the book were not the ones you'd expect. It starts with an amazingly vivid and captivating, even though there's absolutely no shooting. Why? You see, when an author writes about something he's familiar with he can really draw you in. And it shows. Daniel Reany worked with news, lived in Cairo, traveled Middle East, Africa and Europe. He also studied Anthropologgy and Egyptian Archeology (among other things). All of that shows. The realism when it comes to descriptions of places, down to details such as food, is marvellous. It feels authentic. And that's why it works. (I've even tried to google a name of a hotel. It turns out, it exists!)

Same goes for when characters start talking history. I love history. And I've thoroughly enjoyed those parts. Cultural and historical accuracy make it quite juicy.

Unfortunately that's not the gist of the book. There's also terrorists, and actions... And those parts felt generic. Not bad. But utterly predictable. Quite flat. Which is what brought the rating down.

Conclusion: when author writes about what he really knows and has experience with magic happens. First bits concerning workings of a news agency (or whatever you call it) had me craving more, more more! Bombs? Evil terrorists? Meh.