The Alexandria Connection (Curtis O'Connor #4) in Aussie Readers

Sep 22, 2016 Josh rated it it was amazing

Shelves: review_books, read_2016, favorites, given-away

This book is a meaty read comprising political intrigue and corruption, world domination by a powerful and influential 1% faction, globe spanning terror plots, archaeological elements critical to character motives, and a special ops thriller all entwined into a single cohesive narrative that reads 'real'. Thoroughly entertaining from start to finish.

Side note: despite been book 4 in the Curtis O'Connor series, The Alexandria Connection reads perfectly well as a standalone. I've not read the pre ...more

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Oct 26, 2014 Tien rated it liked it

Shelves: thriller, own

I had my doubts about reading this –mostly because it seems to be a part of a series though that’s not clear on Goodreads. I think The Alexandria Connection is the third book of Curtis O’Connor (main character); CIA Agent. However, being persuaded that picking it up out of order will not make much difference, I did and it was a pretty good read.

I loved a thriller involving ancient artefacts –who doesn’t love Indiana Jones!? so it wasn’t hard to convince me to pick up this read; especially noting ...more

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Oct 21, 2014 Bree T rated it liked it

Shelves: arc, series, thriller, terrorism, aussie-author-challenge-2014

CIA agent Curtis O’Connor and his girlfriend/partner archaeologist Aleta Weizman are on a holiday of sorts in Alexandria, Egypt. Although O’Connor is on leave from the CIA, the two are not entirely there to relax – instead Aleta has plans to dive some of the ruins under the ocean in the Alexandria harbour. There have always been rumours of a lost papyrus that would reveal the true purposes of the pyramids of Giza, as well as another one that could turn the entire religion of Christianity on its CIA agent Curtis O’Connor and his girlfriend/partner archaeologist Aleta Weizman are on a holiday of sorts in Alexandria, Egypt. Although O’Connor is on leave from the CIA, the two are not entirely there to relax – instead Aleta has plans to dive some of the ruins under the ocean in the Alexandria harbour. There have always been rumours of a lost papyrus that would reveal the true purposes of the pyramids of Giza, as well as another one that could turn the entire religion of Christianity on its head.

Elsewhere, a man nicknamed Pharos heads up a group of powerful people. The membership of the group is a well-guarded secret and each person invited in has a very specific attribute. All of these people are putting in a careful plan to create chaos in world financial markets via a string of well organised and funded terrorist attacks that will not only drive up the price of oil and create public hysteria but they will also result in loss of life and nuclear meltdown. Although the CIA have managed to intercept enough communication to know that something is planned, they don’t know where or when. Only Curtis O’Connor might be able to track down Pharos and prevent him from taking control of the entire world.

I think this is the third book that features O’Connor and Weizman but it’s the first that I’ve read. On some levels, you don’t really need to read the previous two as each is a separate story but it would probably help because I didn’t realise they were a couple until they started getting it on. I thought they just worked together and maybe there was potential for one of those ‘will they or won’t they?’ scenarios. Clearly that’s been and gone and they’re a couple of sorts here. I’m not entirely sure how serious it is – O’Connor has apparently well known prowess in the bedroom and Weizman is all about finding antiquities. She’s not the sort to sit at home and wait for O’Connor to get home from his latest assignment of being awesome.

There’s a lot going on here and it’s to d’Hagé’s credit that he manages to tie it all together relatively easily. In one part of the world you have O’Connor and Weizman having a ‘holiday’ of sorts (that keeps getting interrupted when O’Connor keeps getting recalled to active duty because of what the other people the in the novel are up to) diving searching the lost ruins of Egypt for evidence of the two rumoured papyrus. You have Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan planning terrorist attacks on the west, increasing on the severity scale with each one. You have one of the world’s richest men heading up a private group hell-bent on basically taking control of the world via influence over the financial markets, the control and supply of fossil fuels, print media coverage and the terrorist acts they’re paying others to carry out for them. d’Hagé also manages to work in domestic political issues such as the carbon tax on a grander scale, presenting it as a critical issue for an upcoming American presidential election. Given I read this book directly after finishing Julia Gillard’s memoir, I found that a very interesting and relevant inclusion!

I really enjoyed the parts of the story that revolved around Egypt and the antiquities as well as the quest to discover what the pyramids were for – all of that is really fascinating. However I do have to admit that the parts of the story connected to terrorism were less interesting to me. I tired of reading about the terrorists talking about the ‘infidels’ and I’m not entirely sure if I should be concerned about the ease of which some of these were planned and carried out or not. There’s a lot of panic now about the perceived level of threat Australia faces from terrorism and I tend to really try to shy away from the hysteria. Although I don’t know of anyone who fills the role of Pharos in reality, there probably are several people who are that wealthy and would pay obscene amounts to have yet more power. It’s a rather unpalatable thought and I did have trouble connecting to any of the characters within the book. O’Connor is a typical CIA/FBI/Navy SEAL/etc action hero and Weizman is basically a walking, talking archaeological and historical encyclopedia. She shows little other personality other than a knowledge and love of history in this book and again, that may be because I haven’t read the previous books featuring her. There is quite a lot of background between her and the CIA which would probably be interesting to catch up on, given it’s summarised in a paragraph or two here. The man behind Pharos is supposed to be loathsome and is, although I feel as though he was too one dimensional, like he could’ve been given something interesting as motivation rather than just money and power. I know they’re both things that easily corrupt but it made him boring.

I think this book is clever and intricate and I enjoyed parts of it a lot and admired the way other parts of it managed to blend together to create a seamless story. I am tempted however to go back and read the books with O’Connor and Weizman on the Maya Codex and the Incan Prophecy, I’ve read books concerning that sort of thing before and I’ve always enjoyed them. ...more

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Oct 26, 2014 Tracey rated it it was ok

Shelves: fiction, politics, thriller, 2014, war

I was lucky enough to be given an advance copy by Penguin Books Australia for an honest review and I promise to do that.

There are rumours that in Egypt that there is a lost papyrus that will reveal the true source of the pyramids and that they just maybe a new source of energy. CIA agent Curtis O’Connor and archaeologist partner Aleta Weizman are cast into a complex scheme hatched by the mysterious Pharos group as the strive for domination of the world’s economic markets.

This is the third book I was lucky enough to be given an advance copy by Penguin Books Australia for an honest review and I promise to do that.

There are rumours that in Egypt that there is a lost papyrus that will reveal the true source of the pyramids and that they just maybe a new source of energy. CIA agent Curtis O’Connor and archaeologist partner Aleta Weizman are cast into a complex scheme hatched by the mysterious Pharos group as the strive for domination of the world’s economic markets.

This is the third book in the series and I found that no deterrence at all. There is no need to have read the previous two as this book stands alone.

O’Connor and Weitzman are on well deserved holidays in Egypt soaking in the history and political upheaval happening around them. Weitzman discovers in the back of a shop two very old pieces of parchment both purporting to be about a great mystery and this triggers off a roller-coaster ride around the world of action, intrigue and mayhem.

For a novel like this to really work you need a mix of good guys and bad guys and some massive crisis to be averted and it is all here in this story. What makes a novel like this work is the telling you need plenty of high octane action and lots of twists and turns. Adrian d’Hage rolls together big conspiracy theories, self interested business men and politicians. It is all here and it works, just. At times the story became bogged down with these facts being thrown in. The story would pick up pace and you are about to be rushed into an exciting world and d’Hage needs to stop and give a paragraph on how many Aston Martins were built or what the Bagdad battery is or how many famous people had stayed at the Mena House Hotel in Cairo. It really did slow the story down at times. Don't be put off by that as it is a very minor quibble.

I enjoyed the novel, the scenarios of terrorism that d’Hage has created are believable and that is frightening. It is the kind of book I would buy for my Dad who loves this adventure thriller spy novel genre and then I would read after he had finished it. ...more

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Nov 02, 2015 Ace Taylor rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery, talking-books, adventure, crime

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