The African Quest

I enjoyed this book. I'm working my way through the series, courtesy of the library. (Except for the first two, which they don't have.) The protagonist, Lara, is well-written and not improbably beautiful, smart, lucky, or stupid.

The central mystery of this book is engaging. Without giving too much away, I liked the way that several different strands came together, and that each character has his or her own agenda going on. As always, there was lot to be learned about the history she discusses, in this case, Carthage.

My one disappointment with the book is that, unlike some of the other books in the series, this one doesn't have a bibiography. Actually, that's not quite true. The dedication indicates that the author actually did arrange show more tours based on some of her books. I'm sorry that I missed those! show less

The main character is antique dealer, Lara McClintoch. She co-owns a store with her ex-husband. He has the bright idea to help business by setting up a first ever antiques and archaeology tour to Tunisa. A group of clients, including some well known people sign up. However, one of the tour group fears someone is going through her belongings and a valuable necklace is missing. Lara also meets up a man who is part of a team diving for lost treasure for the historical information and competing against a man who wants the treasure. Other members of her group end up dead. The story goes back and forth between the present and the past, in this case, two thousand years in the past when the ship they are looking for first sinks. She finds the show more murderer is someone who lost a child when the two fortunate hunters were still friends and worked together. I liked the combination of history of Tunisa and the mystery. I will read more of this series. show less

A murder mystery set in Tunisia amidst at guided tour and also the search for an ancient shipwreck.

Whilst the narrative seemed to get a little bogged down at times, largely it was much better than the earliest two books in the series. The blurb at the beginning of each chapter containing the narrative from the past was vastly better integrated into the story in this book than earlier ones.

Overall, it initially was feeling like a narrated game of Cluedo however as the plot expanded out from the hotel itself the feel of the story improved I felt. Once again the culprit is concealed well throughout the story with hints here and there but no directly identifiable perpetrator until they are revealed in the unfolding story and when done so show more it is not out of left field but rather the pieces simply fall into place. show less

It didn't exactly rivet me but was an interesting read.

A light reading mystery. A Toronto antique storeowner leads an antiques and archaeology tour to Tunisia. Two stories run through the book, one the modern day tour with is its mix of characters and murder and the other the tale of a Carthaginian merchant ship that sank over 2,000 years ago.