The Alexandria Connection

Curtis O'Connor #4

by Adrian d'Hagé

A New World Order is upon us . . .

In the shifting desert sands of Egypt, rumours abound of a lost papyrus that will reveal the true purpose of the Pyramids of Giza. Could these ancient monoliths be the source of a new kind of energy, one that comes at no cost to the planet? CIA agent Curtis O'Connor and archaeologist Aleta Weizman are determined to find out.

Close by, a shadowy and powerful group known as Pharos meets in Alexandria, its membership a closely guarded secret. Its first order of business: to orchestrate chaos on international financial markets with a series of spectacular terrorist attacks on the world's fossil-fuel supplies.

And in Cairo, amid the anarchy of Tahrir Square, thieves have broken into the famed Museum of Antiquities and stolen one of the world's priceless artifacts: the mask of Tutankhamun. Is the audacious theft linked to the Pharos Group?

Nimbly weaving politics, history and science through a rip-roaring plot, from Afghanistan to Washington, Sydney to London, The Alexandria Connection is a spectacular and stylish ride.

Genres: Thriller, Action, Mystery

480 pages, Paperback

First published October 22, 2014

About the author

Adrian d'Hagé was educated at North Sydney Boys High School and the Royal Military College Duntroon (Applied Science). He served as a platoon commander in Vietnam where he was awarded the Military Cross. His military service included command of an infantry battalion, Director of Joint Operations and Head of Defence Public Relations. In 1994 Adrian was made a Member of the Order of Australia. As a Brigadier, he headed Defence planning for counter-terrorism security for the Sydney Olympics, including security against chemical, biological and nuclear threats.

In October 2000 Adrian left the Army to pursue a writing career, moving to Italy to complete The Omega Scroll (Penguin 2005). Now into its sixth printing, The Omega Scroll was voted one of the top 50 books of 2006 (Booklovers Guide) and has been published in ten countries. His next bestselling novel, The Beijing Conspiracy, dealt with biological terrorism and what might happen if smallpox and Ebola are genetically engineered (Penguin 2007). His latest novel, The Maya Codex was published in August 2010.

Adrian also holds an honours degree in Theology, entering as a committed Christian but graduating 'with no fixed religion'. In 2009 he completed a Bachelor of Applied Science (Dean's Award) in Oenology or wine chemistry at Charles Sturt University, and he has successfully sat the Austrian Government exams for ski instructor, 'Schilehrer Anwärter'. Adrian is presently a research scholar and tutor at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (Middle East and Central Asia) at ANU. His doctorate is entitled 'The Influence of Religion on US Foreign Policy in the Middle East'.

Reviews

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a meaty read comprising political intrigue and corruption, world domination by a powerful and influential 1% faction, globe spanning terror plots, archaeological elements critical to character motives, and a special ops thriller all entwined into a single cohesive narrative that reads 'real'. Thoroughly entertaining from start to finish.

Side note: despite been book 4 in the Curtis O'Connor series, The Alexandria Connection reads perfectly well as a standalone. I've not read the previous three books and it did nothing to curb my enthusiasm or enjoyment of The Alexandria Connection.

[Tien · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had my doubts about reading this –mostly because it seems to be a part of a series though that’s not clear on Goodreads. I think The Alexandria Connection is the third book of Curtis O’Connor (main character); CIA Agent. However, being persuaded that picking it up out of order will not make much difference, I did and it was a pretty good read.

I loved a thriller involving ancient artefacts –who doesn’t love Indiana Jones!? so it wasn’t hard to convince me to pick up this read; especially noting the Egyptian connection! I love anything with Ancient Egypt! Regrettably, the book is fairly different to my expectation. It was more espionage thriller with a bit of an archaeology spin (I expected it to be the other way around). I loved Ludlum’s Bourne but just couldn’t get into Clancy’s thrillers. I just couldn’t get into the espionage / terrorism part of this book, especially when it involves politics.

The history spiel was interesting though I found it barely scratched the surface. I don’t know whether it’s meant to be followed on with the next instalment but it seems that certain things are referred to but aren’t developed enough. The thriller part of the book, however, didn’t really have to do with the archaeology side of things so it appears it was really only as an addition to what’s really the main event of the book. It seems a little disjointed to me and somewhat unfinished.

It was, overall, a pretty average read for me noting that it didn’t quite meet my expectation and I floundered quite a bit through the reading. I also think that not having that initial connection with Curtis O’Connor from earlier books wasn’t helpful. It might make a better read, if you had a more relevant expectation and have that initial relationship with the main characters.

Thanks, Penguin Books Australia for eARC via NetGalley

[A Reader's Heaven · Rating 3 out of 5]

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

In the shifting desert sands of Egypt, rumours abound of a lost papyrus that will reveal the true purpose of the Pyramids of Giza. Could these ancient monoliths be the source of a new kind of energy, one that comes at no cost to the planet? CIA agent Curtis O'Connor and archaeologist Aleta Weizman are determined to find out.
Close by, a shadowy and powerful group known as Pharos meets in Alexandria, its membership a closely guarded secret. Its first order of business: to orchestrate chaos on international financial markets with a series of spectacular terrorist attacks on the world's fossil-fuel supplies.
And in Cairo, amid the anarchy of Tahrir Square, thieves have broken into the famed Museum of Antiquities and stolen one of the world's priceless artifacts: the mask of Tutankhamun. Is the audacious theft linked to the Pharos Group?

This is the 4th book in the Curtis O'Connor series of action/thriller novels. I have read a few of the earlier ones.

There is a very fine line in these historically based thrillers - either they seem to be too heavy on the history and forget about the action/suspense side of things or they go the other way and are a bit flimsy on the history and too heavy on the thrills. This one seems to fall into the latter category.

This story seemed to focus more on the espionage side of things - a la Robert Ludlum (which isn't a bad thing on its own) - and the history of the artifacts etc seemed to be a casual mention, not getting too deep and allowed the action to take its place. Like I said, that's not terribly bad but I was really hoping for a better look at the historical elements.

The best thing about this story is the Egyptian connection. I loved reading about that and the possible reasons for the pyramids. I think there was a lot of clever theories involved that really made me think and want to know more.

The downside was the "terrorism" angle - it seemed tenuous to the overall history but, in the authors defence, I think he did pull all of the elements together to create a very good thriller novel.

Just wished for a little more of the history...


Paul
ARH

[(Mark) EchoWolf · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this to be a rather laborious read unfortunately, with an unsatisfying conclusion.
A lot of issues were being thrown in here, from Moslem terrorism, to big corporate corruption, greed, USA politics, nuclear weaponry, CIA spies, ancient Egyptian archeology, and of course, love and revenge and passion. I struggled at times to tie it all together. Parts of the text, like that set in Egypt, I enjoyed, and others like the USA politics and Moslem terrorism characters were of less interest to me.

[Nathaniel Mathies · Rating 2 out of 5]

Terrible.
I listened to the audio book which may have made it worse. It was read slowly and without much enthusiasm.
However the book itself was still really slow and too full of filler and boring back story on politics, art and history.

[Bree T · Rating 3 out of 5]

CIA agent Curtis O’Connor and his girlfriend/partner archaeologist Aleta Weizman are on a holiday of sorts in Alexandria, Egypt. Although O’Connor is on leave from the CIA, the two are not entirely there to relax – instead Aleta has plans to dive some of the ruins under the ocean in the Alexandria harbour. There have always been rumours of a lost papyrus that would reveal the true purposes of the pyramids of Giza, as well as another one that could turn the entire religion of Christianity on its head.

Elsewhere, a man nicknamed Pharos heads up a group of powerful people. The membership of the group is a well-guarded secret and each person invited in has a very specific attribute. All of these people are putting in a careful plan to create chaos in world financial markets via a string of well organised and funded terrorist attacks that will not only drive up the price of oil and create public hysteria but they will also result in loss of life and nuclear meltdown. Although the CIA have managed to intercept enough communication to know that something is planned, they don’t know where or when. Only Curtis O’Connor might be able to track down Pharos and prevent him from taking control of the entire world.

I think this is the third book that features O’Connor and Weizman but it’s the first that I’ve read. On some levels, you don’t really need to read the previous two as each is a separate story but it would probably help because I didn’t realise they were a couple until they started getting it on. I thought they just worked together and maybe there was potential for one of those ‘will they or won’t they?’ scenarios. Clearly that’s been and gone and they’re a couple of sorts here. I’m not entirely sure how serious it is – O’Connor has apparently well known prowess in the bedroom and Weizman is all about finding antiquities. She’s not the sort to sit at home and wait for O’Connor to get home from his latest assignment of being awesome.

There’s a lot going on here and it’s to d’Hagé’s credit that he manages to tie it all together relatively easily. In one part of the world you have O’Connor and Weizman having a ‘holiday’ of sorts (that keeps getting interrupted when O’Connor keeps getting recalled to active duty because of what the other people the in the novel are up to) diving searching the lost ruins of Egypt for evidence of the two rumoured papyrus. You have Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan planning terrorist attacks on the west, increasing on the severity scale with each one. You have one of the world’s richest men heading up a private group hell-bent on basically taking control of the world via influence over the financial markets, the control and supply of fossil fuels, print media coverage and the terrorist acts they’re paying others to carry out for them. d’Hagé also manages to work in domestic political issues such as the carbon tax on a grander scale, presenting it as a critical issue for an upcoming American presidential election. Given I read this book directly after finishing Julia Gillard’s memoir, I found that a very interesting and relevant inclusion!

I really enjoyed the parts of the story that revolved around Egypt and the antiquities as well as the quest to discover what the pyramids were for – all of that is really fascinating. However I do have to admit that the parts of the story connected to terrorism were less interesting to me. I tired of reading about the terrorists talking about the ‘infidels’ and I’m not entirely sure if I should be concerned about the ease of which some of these were planned and carried out or not. There’s a lot of panic now about the perceived level of threat Australia faces from terrorism and I tend to really try to shy away from the hysteria. Although I don’t know of anyone who fills the role of Pharos in reality, there probably are several people who are that wealthy and would pay obscene amounts to have yet more power. It’s a rather unpalatable thought and I did have trouble connecting to any of the characters within the book. O’Connor is a typical CIA/FBI/Navy SEAL/etc action hero and Weizman is basically a walking, talking archaeological and historical encyclopedia. She shows little other personality other than a knowledge and love of history in this book and again, that may be because I haven’t read the previous books featuring her. There is quite a lot of background between her and the CIA which would probably be interesting to catch up on, given it’s summarised in a paragraph or two here. The man behind Pharos is supposed to be loathsome and is, although I feel as though he was too one dimensional, like he could’ve been given something interesting as motivation rather than just money and power. I know they’re both things that easily corrupt but it made him boring.

I think this book is clever and intricate and I enjoyed parts of it a lot and admired the way other parts of it managed to blend together to create a seamless story. I am tempted however to go back and read the books with O’Connor and Weizman on the Maya Codex and the Incan Prophecy, I’ve read books concerning that sort of thing before and I’ve always enjoyed them.

[Jeannie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good page-turner. Some aspects of the plot are really thought-provoking.

[Annabel Krantz · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a huge lover of any story involving ancient cultures, I’d actually had my eye on d’Hage’s books for quite awhile, but was never able to find hard copies (even online!). However, after agreeing to review The Alexandria Connection, the latest in d’Hage’s series featuring CIA agent Curtis O’Conner and beautiful Archeologist Aleta Weizman, all of the previous books came on sale on iTunes! Despite my book buying ban, thanks to being broke, I considered this coincidence serendipity and had to get them while they were so affordable! So, although the Alexandria Connection could be read as a stand alone book, I also read the Maya Codex and the Inca Prophecy, and enjoyed the additional insight that the previous books provided.

D’Hage’s books all follow a similar formula; whispers arise about messages left for the modern world by destroyed ancient civilisations, and the good guys must race the bad guys to protect that knowledge – and help save the world from predicted disasters. Interestingly, many of the books in this genre were published before the famous date in 2012, when the Mayans predicted the end of the world. Since the world didn’t end, and people continued to write, I feel that it has created more of a challenge for authors to come up with new ways to explore the mysteries of our past – without relying on an armageddon that never actually came to pass.

To my boyfriend’s frustration, I believe that there is a kernel of truth in stories like these. Modern society knows an awful lot, but I’m not arrogant enough to believe that we have all of the answers. Many archeologists and scientists have found evidence of past global disasters and cultures, but everything hasn’t quite come together yet and we can’t see the bigger picture about how everything fits together!

Fast paced action defines these books and, 80% of the time, d’Hage has that down to an art. The characters flit across the globe, between archeological sites and capital cities, evading bad guys and dodging death again and again. However, occasionally d’Hage gets bogged down in over complicated explanations of missile functions, or car history, or political backstory. Given the complex interweaving of politics, religion, terror and history throughout the book, I do understand and enjoy the breadth of information covered, but think that it could perhaps be incorporated more smoothly and simply.

Overall, this book held up well against other books in the same category, and I’d definitely pick up another instalment of O’Connor and Weizman’s adventures! I look forward to seeing what conspiracies and mysteries d’Hage tackles next.

[Tracey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to be given an advance copy by Penguin Books Australia for an honest review and I promise to do that.

There are rumours that in Egypt that there is a lost papyrus that will reveal the true source of the pyramids and that they just maybe a new source of energy. CIA agent Curtis O’Connor and archaeologist partner Aleta Weizman are cast into a complex scheme hatched by the mysterious Pharos group as the strive for domination of the world’s economic markets.

This is the third book in the series and I found that no deterrence at all. There is no need to have read the previous two as this book stands alone.

O’Connor and Weitzman are on well deserved holidays in Egypt soaking in the history and political upheaval happening around them. Weitzman discovers in the back of a shop two very old pieces of parchment both purporting to be about a great mystery and this triggers off a roller-coaster ride around the world of action, intrigue and mayhem.

For a novel like this to really work you need a mix of good guys and bad guys and some massive crisis to be averted and it is all here in this story. What makes a novel like this work is the telling you need plenty of high octane action and lots of twists and turns. Adrian d’Hage rolls together big conspiracy theories, self interested business men and politicians. It is all here and it works, just. At times the story became bogged down with these facts being thrown in. The story would pick up pace and you are about to be rushed into an exciting world and d’Hage needs to stop and give a paragraph on how many Aston Martins were built or what the Bagdad battery is or how many famous people had stayed at the Mena House Hotel in Cairo. It really did slow the story down at times. Don't be put off by that as it is a very minor quibble.

I enjoyed the novel, the scenarios of terrorism that d’Hage has created are believable and that is frightening. It is the kind of book I would buy for my Dad who loves this adventure thriller spy novel genre and then I would read after he had finished it.

[Lyn Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Curtis O'Connor (CIA agent and Dr of viruses) and Dr Aleta Weizman (eminent archaeologist) are the main characters in this conspiracy laden book, with Egyptology, corruption in government, the impact of big business on climate control, major art theft and a journey that gives us insight into the history relating the secrets of the past to the present day.

d'Hage skilfully weaves in a plot that leaves us wondering about the meddling of big business into convincing the everyday person that climate control is not real, and uses the analogy in his authors note with the big tobacco companies in convincing us that smoking doesn't cause cancer.

I enjoy that d'Hage also weaves in lessons about the differing religions in existence today and ensures that the reader is made aware of the difference between violent religious extremists and those with genuine peaceful religious beliefs.

The book is well researched and like all good stories leaves you wanting to know more about each of the topics that are touched upon in the book.

A great read. Cant wait for the release of Adrian d'Hage's next book.

[Yvette Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

This reminded me a little of The da Vinci Code, so I couldn't help comparing the two. I liked da Vinci much more - it was fast paced, action packed, with a fascinating story and great characters. The Alexandria Connection tried to do too much and I don't think it was overly successful. There was Egyptology, politics, corruption terrorism, sex (I felt like that was mostly there for the author's enjoyment), espionage. I would have preferred if there was more Egyptology and espionage, and more about O'Connor and Aleta - the title and the cover were misleading.

With no Australian characters and no scenes in Australia until two at the very end, I didn't realise the author was Australian until I was part way through, and was amused at ALL the Australian references in the book - wine from the Hunter Valley, pearls off the WA coast, crop circles in QLD and plenty more.

But I didn't dislike the book. It was well researched, the author obviously has a great deal of knowledge in all these areas, and I learned a few things. Things picked up in the final quarter of the book and overall it was a decent read. I'm sure some readers will really enjoy it.

[Balthazar Lawson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Curtis O'Connor, CIA agent, is on holidays in Egypt with his semi-girlfriend, Aleta Wiezman, an archaeologist. They make a discovery in an old shop in a bizarre that puts them, unknowingly, on a collision course with the world's richest man, Sheldon Crowley, who, along with his rich associates, has plans for world domination.

Unfortunately, this is where it kind of gets convoluted as a novel as there are so many different story lines. There's the American presidential election, the reporters covering that, the terrorists trying to destroy the west, the greedy Pakistani general trying to acquire stolen art, the discovery of ancient ruins and so many more events. It just gets confusing and then there is the huge time jump without really realising that it's taken place. There are so many themes that the ending is extremely rushed and unsatisfying. Plus there is the bad editing to contend with as the wrong character names are used in several places and it leaves the reading confused and have to check if what was written is correct or not or did I just miss something.

The story needed streamlining but it's still mildly entertaining.

[Deb · Rating 2 out of 5]

Took a while to get into the Alexandria Connection, but that's likely due to the fact that was expecting more Egyptology and less politics.

This book did raise some interesting points and as the author said in an interview - nothing has been introduced in terms of warfare that is not scarily available on the internet.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

d'Hage weaves an interesting tale of history and modern terrorism. He addresses our political system and the electoral process in a fictional setting that is both interesting and a kick butt novel.