This book came highly recommended by friends and I realize why. It's a rollercoaster! And therein lies my problem - I think I'm too old for this kind of plot now. If I had read this book when it was published (2002, I guess), I would've loved it! But the reader now is someone who's had thriller plots as her staple food for the past few years (not to mention, reading better accounts of unlikely heroes like Robert Langdon et al). This whole Indiana Jones-y thing just doesn't do it for me anymore. I still enjoyed the overall scheme of things - about the idol, the search, the Incan history, etc. But the common feeling throughout was me waiting impatiently for something to happen finally!

'Temple' was too cinema-ey for my liking. All that frame by frame description of boat chases (it was a never-ending one - I started skipping entire pages here!), this whole nick-of-the-moment thing that happens with most characters - it lacked a certain reality. I realize 'reality' is not a pre-requisite for any book these days, but hey! when the rest of the book deals with facts, it's kinda weird to see Mr.Coincidence be the hero in every chapter!

I don't know if this has been made into a movie already, but if isn't, it should be! I would love to watch the movie version of this and I think I'll enjoy that more than I enjoyed the book.

All that said, do read if you like thrillers about a hunt for missing idols, secret passages through underground mazes, re-incarnated heroes and crazy villains! :-)