Review: Will an archaeological mystery spanning the centuries be finally uncovered?
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 29, 2014
Meet Griffin Clonmac and Mari Quispe, two of the main characters in this book. Griffin is a professor at the University of Virginia. As an archaeologist, he has been researching the legendary bridge near Clonmacnoise Monastery in Ireland. Having received an email about some new evidence Griffin is surprised not to find what he is looking for. What is Professor Daley Garvin hiding? Following him, Griffin knows he has to get hold of that tome (book). Griffin has never been able to understand Daley's grudge against him. Using a pretty girl to distract Daley, Griffin removes the tome from Daley's office. "Ireland's first major span, sunken in the Shannon River for 1200 years." The bridge vanished a few months after being built. Why? Two more books suggested but where to find them? Griffin travels to the archives at Athone, an hour west of Dublin, not far from the monastery. His next big question is how to raise all the funds.Mari Quispe is from Cusco, Peru. She is the official head of an Incan archaeological dig but her assistant, Sandrine, dies in a cave collapse. Mari, very despondent is sure she is going to be fired. Who will hire her now? Her father, Casimiro Quispe, Minister of the Interior, never wanted her to become an archaeologist anyways and threatens to revoke her license. Her brother, Andressa, works at the Peruvian Consulate in Dublin.Daley Garvin is in cahoots with a priest who is demanding Griffin be stopped. Why on earth is the church worried about bringing up a bridge from 1200 years ago? Daley wants the bridge to be found so that he can step in towards the end and take the credit. Daley agrees to ChemCo funding the excavation as long as Griffin hires Mari as his assistant. Up until now, Mari has had the reputation of being a total pain to work with so Daley thinks that she will stop Griffin getting anywhere. He never dreams that they will fall in love and make an excellent team together.Travel back in time to 804AD. A monk, Riordan, is studying the Alcantara bridge near the border of Spain and Portugal. This bridge, built in 104AD crossed the Tagus River and was 640 feet long and 26 feet wide. How does Riordan finance the building of his bridge? Who is against him?The amount of scheming and conniving in this book is quite amazing. To what lengths will each one go to stop this bridge ever coming to the surface again? There are many, many different characters involved, not to mention that we go back in time 6 times reading Riordan's story in segments along with all the characters in his time period. An intense book, not one that you can pick up, read a page, put down and come back, read another page etc. It is best read in long sections.Sexual content - quite a bit of sexual innuendo but nothing graphic. Homosexuality is present and obvious but not explicit.Language - mild but presentA very detailed book, not one to keep you on the edge of your seat in nail biting suspense but one that you want to find out "Why?" so keep reading. The author keeps you in suspense in the fact that the answers are not revealed until the very end.Just so you know, I was given this book in return for my honest review. The words written are my own honest opinion. I am not affiliated with the author in any way.