One of the reasons that I do not write fiction is that I hate editing and re-writing and the essence of good fiction is that very process. We all have some great stories in us and the trick is not so much getting them down on paper as putting them into a form that a few thousand strangers will want to read.

Derek Adie Flower has a great imagination and a flair for storytelling, and he has hit on a great tale in this book.

For some reason ancient Egypt, pharaohs and curses grip the imagination as few other eras in history. And in this book he has it all -- secret societies, unexplained deaths and that important ingredient, romance.

Unfortunately, the one thing Flower left out is editing. This 224-page novel gives us a good story relatively well told that will keep the general reader hooked and eager to find the answers. But, with a good editor or even a ruthless rewrite, Flower might have produced 160 pages of tight writing that would not have aggravated the more pedantic readers.

Either way, he has produced a book worth the effort of seeking out if your interests lean towards historical mystery and mayhem. I would like to see other works by this writer, tightly edited and with less of the colloquial style adopted here.