The beginning and middle of the book is really informative, with floorplans of the sites being described. However, it seems to lose steam by the end, when discussing areas that are off the beaten path. There is a good section with various books, movies, music and other references, so the reader can read more on the different topics. My only other complaint is that it's a bit heafty, to carry around, so I won't be able to take it to Egypt with me, to compare the text with the real thing.

This was a fairly good book. For the most part I liked the character development and the premise that the main character, Atticus Higgenbottom, was a fairly normal teenager, with a normal family and life. Even at just over 400 pages it was a very fast read. The situations, and locations, Atticus and the other people were put in weren't out of left field, or unbelievable. Like most books in this genre there is at least one hero, mentor and villian. One of the problems I had with it was there were side characters that I would have like to know more about, in this book. Here's hoping they come back, so we might be able to learn more about them. Another problem I had was that the first 3/4 of the book was leading up to the last 1/4. It seemed as if, once the riddles mailed out were solved, the author lost a bit of his steam; almost an "oops! I have to wrap this up soon" type of feeling. I'm curious to read more of his books, to see if this is just his writing style, or if it's just the way he wrote this book. This isn't to say that I won't be looking forward to the sequels, to see what happens next, to our heros, and to find out where the series takes us. All in all I recommend it, and would love to know what the teens I know think about it.