Reviewed by Taylin

TITLE: Trapped in the Valley of the Kings

AUTHOR: Blue Jones

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH: 24 pages

RELEASE DATE: December 1, 2018

BLURB:

Rival archaeologists Will and Jude slept together a year ago, on the night of the Summer Solstice at a dig in Stonehenge. But they were both wearing masks, so Jude has no idea it was Will he slept with, and Will’s been harboring a powerful, one-sided crush ever since.

Now they’re in Egypt, competing to find the lost tomb of Queen Nefertiti. Jude falls through a crack in the cave floor, and when Will reluctantly climbs down to help him, they find themselves in Nefertiti’s tomb, surrounded by archaeological treasures—where they must spend Christmas stranded by a sandstorm.

Will a few sultry hours stripped almost bare from the heat and sharing a bottle of whiskey sort out who should get credit for the discovery—and the real reason for the tension between them?

REVIEW:

Will is an archaeologist whose latest adventure is in Egypt. Too eager to explore the cave uncovered by a landslide, Will doesn’t adhere to the weather warnings, nor could he wait for the cave to be safety inspected. He makes his way up the slope in the Valley Of The Kings, and as he gets to the top, the storm bears down. He ducks inside the cave to find he’s not alone. Jude, a fellow archaeologist, is already in there. Jude promptly falls down a hole. Will follows him in a sort of rescue attempt, but the storm keeps them there.

I picked up this story because a hobby of mine is Egyptian history. I love it and can’t get enough of it. Told in the third person – present tense, the tale is technically sound. It is difficult to get depth and feeling into short stories, and I was pleased to see that a snippet in time was taken with a touch of history thrown in for added drama. In short, the best was made of the available word count. The scene setting is rather delightful, too. My only uh oh was that the season for sandstorms is March/April, not Christmas as temperatures are lower in the winter season. But I guess in the current climate the probability isn’t impossible, and fiction is about stretching boundaries and a few other things along the way.

Will and Jude are middle-aged and have a history, albeit Will doesn’t believe Jude remembers it. A masquerade party at Stonehenge and alcohol being the reason. As such, their first words together after twelve months apart are antagonizing ones.

Trapped until the storm subsides, the boys exchange sob stories, and that’s where archaeology goes out the window and the heat in the chamber ramps up.

I found Trapped In The Valley Of The Kings to be an entertaining little ditty that wouldn’t be out of place in year-round anthologies.

RATING:

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