Monday, November 7, 2011

Harold Robbins’ The Curse-Junius Podrug

Harold Robbins’ The Curse


Junius Podrug

Forge, Nov 8 2011, $25.99

ISBN: 9780765327147



The Sphinx sends Fatima Sari to kill former New York's Piedmont Museum curator Madison Dupree, but the amateur assassin does not want to murder the art expert. Instead, as Madison watches in horror, Fatima jumps under an oncoming train.



Meanwhile broke Madison accepts an authentication assignment in Cairo though she ponders why Dr. Mounir Kassem chose her with her being internationally disgraced. Her assignment is to determine whether this is the genuine Heart of Egypt scarab stolen by Sir Jacob Radcliff from King Tut's tomb in 1922 before the self proclaimed owners pay the exorbitant “fee”.



The latest Dupree antiquities thriller (see The Shroud) is an exciting over the top of the Great Pyramid when the focus is on the artifact. On the other hand when the male populace bed Dupree, she seems pathetic and the plot loses momentum. Putting aside the lack of the Arab Spring and no sense of place beyond inane obvious references, only Dupree fans will enjoy her African adventure as she jumps from one man to another in between the scarab related escapades.



Harriet Klausner



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