Ramose and the Tomb Robbers (Book Two)

Review also includes:

Ramose: Prince in Exile (Book One), **, 978-1846470004

Ramose is a Moses-like fugitive from the Egyptian Royal household, living among desert folk and tomb robbers. As with much historical fiction the inclusion of details from the time can slow the story down – poor Ramose can’t even write something without the detail of chewing his reed pen and getting his palette inky having a look-in. This is a particular problem in book one, where the history lesson hinders the story, with the result that, by the end of the first title our hero, Ramose, isn’t likeable, and the story hasn’t gripped us enough to sustain a read on to book two.

This is a shame as it is here that the series comes to life. In Tomb Robbers the characters who support the exiled prince become an engaging team that will attract readers to stick with the series. This is also the title with the strongest storyline. Carole Wilkinson has managed to write a vividly exciting tomb robbery, crafting traps and dilemmas that vividly bring the page alive with action and pace.

The start of this series is like some ancient Egyptian passage through the underworld. You need to travel through the dead land of book one to reach the liveliness of the second volume in the series, but the journey is well worth it. If the same crowd of friends continues the same sort of adventure, this will be a series to follow.