Journalist and novelist Paul Sussman read history at Cambridge, where he was also a Boxing Blue. From an early age his abiding passion was archaeology and he worked in the field, in particular in Egypt where he was part of the first team to excavate new ground in the Valley of the Kings since the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922. He brought this interest to his bestselling novels - The Lost Army of Cambyses, The Last Secret of the Temple, The Hidden Oasis and The Labyrinth of Osiris - which have been translated into over 30 languages and sold over three million copies. His journalism appeared across the media, including in the Big Issue, Independent, Guardian and on CNN.com. Paul died suddenly in May 2012. He was just 45. He is survived by his wife, a television producer, and their two sons.
More than lives up to its promise...It's the first novel Sussman ever wrote, yet the things that made him such a distinctive writer - his boundless imagination, his love of the bizarre, his ability to keep a complex plot bowling along - are already firmly in place. The book is as darkly funny as it is original. * JOHN PRESTON, Mail on Sunday * Chaotic, surreal, tricksy and so alive... Sussman's first written and last published novel has shades of Vonnegut, Donleavy and Golding's Pincher Martin. Loved it * JONATHAN GRIMWOOD, author of The Last Banquet *