Review
Phillips has followed up his debut novel
Prague (also recommended at BookBrowse) with something completely
different. The story is set in the early 1920s and told primarily in
the form of letters and journal entries from the key protagonists, who
include a more than usually strange English Egyptologist by the name of
Ralph Trilipush, and Harold Ferrell, an Australian detective, who believes
Trilipush maybe implicated in the death of another Egyptologist. As
Kirkus Reviews writes 'this is a suave, elegant novel, replete with
sinuously composed sentences and delicious wordplay....Phillips'
formidable research and witty prose make this one well worth your time.
He's quite possibly a major novelist in the making.'
Beyond the Book
The excerpt at BookBrowse will give you a good idea of the tone
and style of the book but, not to be missed, is the author's
essay about how he researched the book and why he believes
Hemingway's advice to 'write what you know' is not the case.
