Gideon Crew Takes One Last Adventure In Preston and Child’s ‘The Pharaoh Key’ [REVIEW]

Gideon Crew goes on one last adventure in search of what may be his greatest discovery yet in Preston and Child’s The Pharaoh Key. (Photo by Phil Robinson, Flickr)

Time is running out for one legendary adventurer. Facing a death sentence, he wants to pursue one final treasure, perhaps the biggest of his career. But will he be able to accomplish his task in time? And will it prove to be the salvation he so desperately needs? Find out in Preston and Child’s fifth and final Gideon Crew novel, The Pharaoh Key. 

Grand Central

Eli Glinn, head of Effective Engineering Solutions, has vanished and the company is being shut down. Manuel Garza, one of Gideon Crew’s friends and colleagues, contacts him to let him know that they only have two hours to collect their things before EES shutters its doors forever. But then the unexpected happens: a code-breaking machine cracks the Phaistos Disk, a centuries old artifact that points toward incredible treasures and maybe even a world-altering secret. Facing termination and a diagnosis that has given Gideon only months to live, he convinces Garza to take on one last great adventure and a chance to split the spoils. What they don’t know, but soon discover, is that some missions are much more dangerous than others.

Living on borrowed time, Gideon Crew takes his doctor’s sage advice to heart: “Don’t become miserable and paralyzed with grief and fear. Instead, do something worthwhile and engaging with the time you have left.” Now, as Gideon and Garza decide to crack the Phaistos Disk’s mysterious code and the secrets of an undiscovered civilization, they find something much more valuable than treasure. With The Pharaoh Key, Preston and Child weave a beautiful story of adventure and friendship set against the backdrop of Cairo. However, this tale is far more than just another action story. Instead, it is a nuanced study of gratitude and interpersonal relationships.

Packed with beautiful scenery and heroic action, readers will lose themselves within the pages of this captivating novel and may likely wind up asking themselves if they would make similar decisions if they found out their own lives were quickly drawing to a close. Human relationships are complicated, and sometimes, if we are very lucky, fulfilling at the same time. As Gideon and Manuel discover, we must all decide between contentment and regret, and if we look closely, we realize the people who populate our lives every day may turn out to be the ones who nourish our souls the most. Chock full of valuable life lessons, unforgettable characters, and irresistible action, Preston and Child’s The Pharaoh Key, is an eye-opening novel you won’t soon forget and a worthy send-off to a beloved character we’d love to cling to just a little while longer.

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
(Photo by Deborah Feingold)

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are the number one bestselling coauthors of the celebrated Pendergast novels, as well as the Gideon Crew books.

Preston and Child’s Relic and The Cabinet of Curiosities were chosen by readers in a National Public Radio poll as being among the one hundred greatest thrillers ever written, and Relic was made into a number-one box office hit movie.

Readers can sign up for their monthly newsletter, The Pendergast File, at PrestonChild.com, and follow them on Facebook.

THE PHARAOH KEY
By Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
320 pgs. Grand Central. $28.

Purchase The Pharaoh Key at one of these fine online retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, IndieBound, and Powell’s.