Paul Sussman

After reading Umberto Eco, this person does deserve a mention. I finished reading the book, The lost army of Cambyses by Paul Sussman. It was a modern day novel but with tangible roots to the history and archaeology of Egypt. There is of course a lot of human element involved about finding a momentous discovery in the Great Sand Sea in Western Egypt. The historical background is pretty interesting. It was time of the great Persians, when they were having waves of expansion. The Persian ruler Cambyses had conquered Egypt; and had sent a great army of 50,000 men to defeat the Ammonians in what is now modern day Libya which started from Thebes, in Egypt. While on their way, the army was caught in a huge sandstorm and all of them perished. That's what happened, according to Herodotus. The book involves a finding of that lost army; and how the authorities use it to trap a notorious fundamentalist. Of course, for more drama, the entire army and the people who now know about it get lost and destroyed in another sandstorm. There is the main protagonist, Khalifa, who survives.
It has lot of learned remarks on history and archaeology; and inspired by it I actually dug out a translation of Herodotus' Inquiries. Interesting, hmmm! And it has to be; this person is an field archaeologist, so he manages to give a vivid description  to all the action that is going on there. Am reading the next book: The last secret of the Temple. Hope that this one's as interesting.