Napoleon’s Pyramids by William Dietrich
“Had I been inclined to superstition, I might have made not that the date, April 13, 1798, was a Friday. But it was springtime in revolutionary Paris”.
When Ethan Gage wins a medallion in a card game he dismisses it as a mere curiosity, an artifact covered with incomprehensible markings barely worth the gold it is made of. Others do not agree and when Gage refuses to sell the medallion he is attacked and framed for murder. Forced to flee France, or stay and face Madame Guillotine, Gage attaches himself to an expedition to Egypt, a military and scientific venture sponsored by the government and lead by none other than the soon to be emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte.
Like many before, and since, Bonaparte has come to Egypt not only to conquer the land but to unlock its secrets and he is not alone. Dogged by a mysterious mystic, stalked by a ruthless Bedouin chieftain, and driven onwards by Bonaparte’s ambitions, Gage is thrust head first into a daunting quest to decipher the medallion and uncover its link to the pyramids before it is too late and he becomes one of the many bodies buried beneath Egypt’s sands.