The Tomb of Hercules by Andy McDermott
I have recently read and enjoyed Andy McDermott’s action-packed fourth novel The Covenant of Genesis ( my review) so I ordered his first three books in the Dr. Nina Wilde and Eddie Chase series from bibliotek.dk, the Danish public library system. McDermott referred to their previous adventures throughout the novel, and my curiosity was piqued. I was not disappointed by The Tomb of Hercules, his second novel.
Recurring main characters archaeologist Nina Wilde, her boyfriend, former British SAS soldier, Eddie Chase, and Eddie’s former wife, the murderous Lady Sophie Blackwell travel around the globe leaving a trail of humour, destruction and chaos in their wake-from the high-seas to the tunnels of the New York train system, from a nuclear bomb facility in the Swiss Alps to a perilous traffic chase in downtown Shanghai. Clues to the location of The Tomb of Hercules are found written in invisible ink on the back side of a 2,000 year-old manuscript of Plato’s dialogues. The novel concludes with an attempted nuclear attack on New York City. Phew! That’s plenty of action.
The cliff-hangers are many, including both an actual cliff and a waterfall in Botswana. One wonders how McDermott can squeeze in quite so many of them into one novel. But that’s no complaint- I love it. It’s fast and furious, like Indiana Jones on steroids. A scene I particularly enjoyed was one where Eddie and ex-wife Sophia’s escape down the side of a skyscraper in Shanghai on a sheet of metal. It was thrilling.
Nina and Eddie are very likeable with a repartee reminiscent of Dashiell Hammet’s Nick and Nora Charles. They struggle with their relationship and with their new jobs. The threat of break-up hangs over them at times, especially when Nina becomes jealous of Sophie, Eddie’s cunning and vicious ex-wife. Eddie has a heart of gold. He is sweet and stubborn, and doesn’t know how to express his feelings except in anger and rage-but he is loyal to his friends and those he loves. And Sophie will stop at nothing to get what she wants. No one stands in her way and survives.
Some warnings for the faint at heart. At times the action becomes a bit gory, but it is always handled with devilish humour. For example the corridors leading up to the Tomb of Heracles are fraught with imaginatives traps and pitfalls, some of which were put to work; and Sophie makes brutal use of her stilettos in escaping pursuers from the Shanghai Opera Building. Also Eddie’s language can be quite salty, and there are frequent references to sex. So if you’re offended by any of these, perhaps you might want to look elsewhere.
McDermott makes frequent, charming and amusingly pointed comparisons between his characters and plotlines to those in other works such as by Dan Brown, Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books.
McDermott’s light-hearted, exciting and easy-to-read novels entertain with techno-action, archeological adventures, fantastic locations and evil-doers you wish you could fight yourself. The library is already holding McDermott’s first book in the series, The Hunt for Atlantis for me. I look forward to seeing how their adventures begin.