Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; 1 edition (April 29, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 044656320X
ISBN-13: 978-0446563208
"Fact collides with fiction in Will Adams second pulse-pounding adventure featuring the enigmatic Daniel Knox. On the trail of a Dead Sea Scroll, Daniel Knox finds himself at an excavation just outside Alexandria, where an evangelical Christian archaeologist has just discovered an undeclared Jewish Temple. Knox takes photographs and sends them to his partner Gaille. Moments later Knox's jeep is forced off the road killing his friend and head of the SCA - Omar. Meanwhile in Egypt, Gaille is baby-sitting a television documentary crew. When she receives Dan's pictures she quickly realises that one of them has a link to the Copper Scroll, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls. But more importantly the link is also attached to the one time Pharaoh Akheneaten in Amarana -- the very place the crew are filming. Whilst following up the connections Gaille unwittingly draws the attention of Khaled a tomb robber and army officer. Khaled soon realises that Gaille has what he wants and suddenly she and the television crew are in mortal danger from a greedy and deranged individual.Back in Alexandria Knox is under investigation for the murder of his colleague and then sees a broadcast showing a kidnapped Gaille.
It's obvious only to him that Gaille is trying to send him a coded message but Knox is now imprisoned and Gaille's time is running out. What's worse, a new and even more dangerous foe is about to make its mark!"
AUTHOR Q&A: THE EXODUS QUEST from Grand Central Publishing
Why did you choose to write about the Exodus? What do you find most interesting about that biblical story?
I’ve always found the Exodus a vivid and compelling story, and for many years I took it for granted that it was based on at least a seed of truth, so I can remember being shocked when I learned that there was no supporting evidence for it having happened at all in the archaeological record. That’s not to say that something like it didn’t happen (and there are many historians who believe that it did); but I did find this complete disconnect between biblical history and archaeology fascinating.
I also found the character of the pharaoh Akhenaten equally compelling. And when you have his name seemingly spelled out on a copper treasure map found in the Dead Sea Scroll caves at Qumran, that really gave me all the ingredients I could wish for.
You offer several different views of pharaoh Akhenaten. How did you come up with them? Is all the evidence you report in the novel factual?
The challenge with Akhenaten isn’t coming up with new theories, it’s picking between the ones already on offer. Every book you read seems to offer a completely new interpretation – and no one knows for sure which – if any – are right. The challenge, therefore, is giving the reader enough information to follow the story, yet without irredeemably confusing them or leading them to believe that certain things are ‘facts’ when they really aren’t.
I tried to get that across by having multiple characters each giving their own opinion. None of them is entirely right or wrong; they just represent different points of view. Of course, this being the kind of novel it is, I had to have a great discovery at the end, and therefore needed to pick between the various possibilities. I think the case I make is a plausible one, but it shouldn’t be considered as fact.
Akhenaten is often portrayed in works of art as very physically distinctive. What is the most widely accepted explanation in modern archaeology for this?
I think the most widely-accepted explanation is probably that it was the prevailing artistic style (imagine trying to diagnose someone by looking at a Picasso portrait of them, and you’ll get the idea). But a great many people believe that the portraits indicate that Akhenaten suffered from some medical condition like Marfan syndrome (presumably genetic because all his daughters were portrayed the same way too). The truth is (as with so much of the Amarna era) that no one knows for sure.
In your acknowledgments you highlight the basis for your theories connecting Akhenaten to Moses and your theories connecting Amarna to Qumran. How widely accepted are these theories in modern archaeology? Do you believe they are right?
The theories aren’t widely accepted at all, but then this is an incredibly complicated and controversial field, not least because the idea that one of the foundational figures of Judaism might actually have been an Egyptian pharaoh is uncomfortable for people both in Israel and in Egypt.
Speaking for myself, I’m not at all sure where the truth lies. What I will say is that I was impressed by the amount of circumstantial evidence supporting some kind of link. That doesn’t prove a connection, of course (Amarna and Qumran were separated by over a thousand years, after all), but I think that it warrants more investigation than the experts seem willing to give it.
In The Alexander Cipher we see Mohammed’s adoration for his daughter Layla and in The Exodus Quest we see Naguib adoration for his daughter Husniyah. What do you feel is significant about father/daughter relationships that make it a recurring theme for you?
I’m afraid this is coincidence as much as anything. In The Alexander Cipher, I wanted the reader to like Mohammed despite the regrettable things he does during the book; and so I had him do those things because he was fighting for his sick child (though I did deliberately make his child a daughter to accentuate her vulnerability).
In The Exodus Quest, I originally gave Naguib a son, precisely because I’d given Mohammed a daughter in the previous book; but the way the plot developed (with young local women being found killed), it made more sense to make his child a daughter so that she’d be at risk herself, and so he’d have more at stake.
Further Reading: Please list a few books for readers interested in delving deeper into the story of The Exodus or Egyptology.
The essential idea behind The Exodus Quest came from The Mystery of the Copper Scroll of Qumran by Robert Feather, although the idea of Moses being Akhenaten was originally made famous by Sigmund Freud in his monograph Moses and Monotheism.
Amarna is a fascinating subject, not least because we know so little for certain about it that it has become perfect territory for all kinds of conflicting speculation. The book I personally enjoyed the most was Akhenaten: King of Egypt by Cyril Aldred (although it was written some time ago, and misses out on more recent discoveries). For more general information about Egyptology, I’d very strongly recommend Barry Kemp’s Ancient Egypt.
For those interested in an archaeological overview of the connection between Egypt and Israel (including a review of the evidence or otherwise for the Exodus), I’d recommend Donald Redford’s Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times – though, be warned, it is an academic text, and it assumes familiarity with archaeological language and techniques, as well as with the background history and material.
I found The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls by Jodi Magness the most helpful and convincing of the books on that topic. And, for more on the Therapeutae, read Philo’s De Vita Contemplativa.
Have you plans to set a Daniel Knox book in another country?
Yes, the third book is set in Greece (Athens and Crete, mostly). And the fourth book, which I’m working on at the moment, is set in Madagascar. It’s one of the great privileges of writing these kind of books that you get to choose where to set your books, and therefore get to travel to places that you’ve always been fascinated by.
What do you find most challenging about being a writer?
Getting the historical background as accurate as possible involves a lot of reading (forty or fifty books, I should think, plus a great deal of internet research) and so you really have to pick topics that fascinate you, or it could easily become a burden.
But I think the most difficult thing is (as with any kind of creative endeavor) that you need to be relentlessly self-critical. After all, writing five hundred or a thousand words a day looks as if it should be so easy; but there are times when you make no progress at all, or when everything you write is flat. Keeping going (and maintaining your standards) when things aren’t going well is absolutely vital, but it can be punishing.
Author Bio
Will Adams has tried his hand at a multitude of careers over the years. Most recently, he worked for a London-based firm of communications consultants before giving it up to pursue his lifelong dream of writing fiction. His first novel, The Alexander Cipher, is about a modern-day quest to find the lost tomb of Alexander the Great. A top-twenty UK bestseller, it has been translated into thirteen languages. The Exodus Quest is his second novel.
My thoughts: I have always been interested in all things Egyptian so I was excited to read this book. Unfortunately, as seems to be a habit of mine, I did not read the first in this series. Although I will after reading this novel. This book had an interesting theory about the possibility that Akhenaten and Neffertiti were Adam and Eve. There also seems to be other circumstances where there are parrallels between the Bible and Eqyptian history. Whether this is true or not is not for me to say but I did enjoy the concept. This book was very fast paced and full of interesting characters and lots of dangerous situations. Lots of bad guys and good amount of running and hiding by the main characters Daniel and Gaille from these said bad guys. There also was a hint of romance between these two people. This novel was researched very well and the plot of the story believable. The archaelogical sites were described in so much detail that I wonder if these sites were real. Sure seemed like it. I enjoyed this book immensely and do entend to find the first and read the last when it comes out.
You can read an excerpt here at Hatchettebookgroup.com
I received this book for review from Hatchette Book Group for read and review. I was not compensated monetarily for my review.
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