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Loading... Sphinx (1979)by Robin Cook
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. a good easy read that keeps you interested. Cook develops his characters so you have a good understanding of them. When i was done it had me wanting to visit the area. ( ) Not sure when or how I acquired this book, it's not the sort of thing I usually read. Perhaps I had hoped the Egyptian setting would be exotic or that it would be more mystery than thriller. I was surprised that a book from the 1980s would feel so dated. I liked the main character, an Egyptologist visiting Egyptian historical sites for the first time, most of the time, but any scenes with her boyfriend, who didn't respect her education at all, just got too annoying. Her attempts to solve the mystery of a statue of Seti I were usually more luck than research. I ended up skimming the last half. Best known for his medical novels, Robin Cook achieves a minor masterpiece with this exotic tale. Set in 1980, the story focuses on a week in Cairo and Luxor as the reader follows the intrigues of Erica Baron, an American Egyptologist. Caught in black market schemes of Egyptian antiquities, this young female protagonist directly witnesses vendor murder, mosque violence, and bodyguard assassination. To enhance the main storyline, Cook candidly develops the risk-taking Baron who ensnares herself in romantic liasons, but keeps focused to find the Seti I statue. Besides locating the life-size piece, she discovers an elaborate covert operation to smuggle priceless artifacts out of the Valley of the Kings, which she attempts to thwart by relying upon her academic conscience. The brilliant use of imagery and unforeseen "treasure map" details keeps the plot flowing. Although some information of the main character's movements are unnecessary to build characterization, the author generates a convincing story. Easily mistaken as a silly mummy fable of curse and consequence, rather the extraordinary novel provides a decent roadmap for the study of how to write a narrative that will grab a reading audience. no reviews | add a review
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Investment protection treaties generally provide for the obligation to treat investments fairly and equitably, even if the wording of the rule and its relationship with the customary international standard may differ. The open-textured nature of the rule, the ambiguous relationship between the vague treaty and equally vague customary rules, and States' interpretations of the content and relationship of both rules (not to mention the frequency of successful invocation by investors) make this issue one of the most controversial aspect of investment protection law. This monograph engages in a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between the international minimum standard and fair and equitable treatment. It provides an original argument about the historical development of the international standard, a normative rationale for reading it into the treaty rules of fair and equitable treatment, and a coherent methodology for establishing the content of this standard. The first part of this book untangles the history of both the international minimum standard and fair and equitable treatment. The second part addresses the normative framework within which the contemporary debate takes place. After an exhaustive review of all relevant sources, it is argued that the most persuasive reading of fair and equitable treatment is that it always makes a reference to customary law. The third part of the book builds on the historical analysis and the normative framework, explainingthe content of the contemporary standard by careful comparative human rights analysis. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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