THE LAST EMBER ~ Mr. Joy's Thoughts

Author: Daniel Levin

Genre: Fiction, Standalone

Published: 2009

Mr. Joy's Personal Rating: 4/5 (very good)

Guest Appearances: 2

Please Note: While being thankful for the opportunity to receive and read this ARC, I feel the need to post the blurb from its cover. However, in my opinion there is usually too much disclosed. Read at your own discretion.

From the ARC cover:

A secret that reaches back millennia. A desperate search for a legendary relic. A fanatic's quest to erase the past.

When fragments of a stone map of ancient Rome mysteriously resurface, Jonathan Marcus, a young lawyer and a former classics scholar, reluctantly reunites with a former friend from his students days at the American Academy in Rome to search for clues to the location of the fabled Tabernacle Menorah, a priceless historical artifact taken from Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. but as they search, so, too, does the mysterious Salah ad-Din, a radical bent on erasing all remnants of Jewish and Christian presence from the Temple Mount.

What follows is a treasure hunt like no other, a race to control a historical perspective and determine who can define - or redefine - the past. By turns a riveting page-turner and a compelling character study set in the high-stakes worlds of art, politics, and terrorism. The last Ember is a gripping literary thriller that explores the deadly world of illicit antiquity excavation and ancient intrigue.

Once I got past all the Italian names and locations, this turned out to be a fun book. There was a lot of action and intrigue along with a splash of romance. The plot to erase history was an interesting idea and with all the mysterious societies and historic references, it had a Da Vinci Code feel to it. This is an author with a promising future, and I look forward to his next book.

Thanks go to Riverhead Books for providing this ARC. The Last Ember was released on August 6, 2009.