From the very beginning the story grabbed my attention when a bad guy holding a gun on a professor of Egyptology tries to get him to burn some ancient Egyptian scrolls they found in a tomb thirty feet below the Giza Plateau. It doesn’t work out well for the professor. I then meet Omar Zagouri in Tel Aviv, getting ready for a rendezvous, a date, with his beautiful girlfriend, Mia, an Israeli undercover agent, just like him. On his way to the fancy event, Omar’s boss calls, giving him an assignment after a bomb threat closes down their destination. To make things worse, Mia disappears during the fracas.

I immediately like Omar. He’s not built like a Greek God, tall with bulging muscles that women would fall over, but he’s more of a regular guy. I loved his sarcastic sense of humor. It entertained me throughout the story, as well as his ability to get out of tight situations. His devotion to Mia warmed my heart. They are a good fit together.

Lost King is told in three different point of views that switch up with chapter changes—from Omar’s, from an abducted professor, Kale Jaji’s, and from an ancient Egyptian she-king, Hatshepsut. The first time I was pulled back into Thebes, 1490 BC, I wondered how deep I would fall, and how Hatshepsut’s life would impact Omar and Mia, because I knew it had to. Hatshepsut was the daughter of Thutmose I, Pharaoh of Egypt, whose goal in life was to succeed her father and become Pharaoh.

I enjoyed reading Lost King very much. The expert writing kept me invested in the next moment, and the easy dialogue and banter sounded natural. Well done, HB Moore. I look forward to Omar’s next adventure.