Reviewed by Sarina

TITLE: The Curse of the Blue Scarab

AUTHOR: Josh Lanyon

PUBLISHER: JustJoshin Publishing

LENGTH: 307 pages

RELEASE DATE: December 9, 2016

BLURB:

Who or what is responsible for the gruesome deaths of members of the secret society known as the Order of Osiris?

Dr. Armiston, an irascible, confirmed bachelor who believes in medicine not mysticism, is certain the deaths are only tragic accidents.

The members of the Order of Osiris suspect something more sinister is at work. They profess to believe an ancient curse has been visited upon their society. Handsome and mysterious Captain Maxwell requests Armiston’s help.

Tarot cards? Egyptology? Spiritualism? Armiston has little patience with the superficial and silly pastimes of the rich, but he does love a good puzzle. Or could it be that he is more drawn to young Captain Maxwell than he wishes to admit?

Either way, Armiston must solve the secret of the cursed sarcophagus very soon, for Captain Maxwell is the next slated to die…

REVIEW:

While I do own a few books that can be considered ‘mash-ups’, I haven’t gotten around to picking them up yet and so, as my first experience with this type of novel, I found The Curse of the Blue Scarab fairly interesting. If you aren’t familiar with what a mash-up entails, the author does explain it at the end of the book so I won’t bother going into detail here; just know that the concept of The Mummy was used (the original publication, not the movie) along with different concepts/genres in order to create a new novel.

I found the story concept itself interesting and really enjoyed the elements used from the original story in the telling of this one. Quite a few characters were introduced but you only really get to know a handful of them while the others drift in and out of the story as necessary. The main characters, Armiston and Maxwell, weren’t quite what I was expecting but I liked them nonetheless; Armiston was an older gentleman (though in no way actually old) while Maxwell was younger and their respective ages were fairly apparent in their interactions. Quite often Armiston would remind people that he was old enough to be their father and Maxwell showed his younger years by his brash nature and determination to rush into things; I found it even more interesting when these two seemed to undergo a role reversal in actions later in the story.

The pacing of the book was on the slow side but I found I didn’t mind it; it really seemed to fit with the plot and setting in general. The mystery was interesting, and I did enjoy it overall, but I also didn’t devour the book like I normally would and I found it took the majority of the day to get through it instead of the handful of hours I had anticipated. If I had one major complaint about the book it would be that I figured out who was behind the deaths and why very early in the book and because of this, there was a distinct lack of surprise about anything when the big reveal actually took place. I had hoped perhaps the reason was a little more complicated than it was or that there would be some unforeseen twist to it but that wasn’t the case, unfortunately.

I did like the book and enjoyed the story itself regardless of the lack of surprise and will most likely read it again in the future. If you enjoy historical novels, mysteries, or Josh Lanyon’s other works, I’d recommend checking this one out. 🙂

RATING:

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