Brad Geagley

True to the advice of his editor quoted in the acknowledgements ("Mystery, Brad, not history"), Geagley does a marvelous job of weaving historical detail into "Year of the Hyenas," transporting the reader into ancient Egypt without bogging down the story with irrelevant details. His main protagonist, Semerket, has depth and challenges that make his progression as a character interesting to follow. Most of the other characters were also interesting, both internally and in how they related to show more Semerket. A few fell short--the boy Rami, for example, had much more potential than was realized. The narrator began trying to convince us that Hunro was important to Semerket a little too late to ring true.

My interest in Semerket's personal life outweighed my interest in the mystery he was solving, so the story began to fall flat for me about 3/4 of the way through, when the focus shifted to the conspiracy. The plot is ostensibly based in historical fact, but at this point Geagley seemed to be stretching to incorporate the true story into the fiction. Also, my interest in deciphering which secondary characters are culpable and which have good intentions requires a certain balance of "good guys" to "bad guys" that tipped too far, too fast. I kept reading, mostly to find out what would happen between Semerket and his ex-wife, and his brother. Then again, I'm not much of a mystery reader--maybe someone who thrives on plot twists and turns would breathe a sigh of relief at finally getting to the good part. show less

I read the historical mystery, Day of the False King, by Brad Geagley. Probably should say devoured. It was very good, even better than the first one. The main core of characters were also in this book. The ancient setting of Babylon was done even better than Thebes in Egypt. A very pleasant surprise. This author will go on my watch list.

The setting this time was Babylon and Semerket the main POV was sent there as a diplomat from Pharaoh with several jobs. Some official and public, some show more official and private, and some personal and private. It was very well done, and had many new and interesting characters. There were several story threads but they all meshed together so that there was one narrative but many things going on.

The only criticism was the parts to the mystery were obvious. All the big events were foreshadowed, and it basically gave the mystery away. Not that the foreshadowing was badly done, but perhaps things matched up too neatly, or the lack of real red herrings. Anyway it didn't really bother me, because I read the books for the historical details, and not so much for the mystery. show less

This is a historical mystery set in Egypt at the time of Ramses III. Features a pretty classic gumshoe character, the ladies like him and he's a troubled yet standup guy, determined to get to the bottom of the murder of a minor priestess though powerful forces around him don't seem to want that.Some problematic bits about strong women, and the detective's apparent alcoholism. Not sure if I'm on board with the author's treatment of both. But the interesting Egyptian historical aspects and the show more fast moving storyline mean I'll probably check out the second in the series. show less

I loved this book. I love historical mysteries because I want to feel taken out of my everyday life, and this did the trick. Interesting characters and well-plotted!