A safe haven from thinking too hard (Sanctuary - Raymond Khoury)

Member Name: calypte

Product:	Sanctuary - Raymond Khoury
Date:	17/05/09 (97 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: easy to read, fast-paced, vaguely fun

Disadvantages: utter nonsense

Welcome to Lebanon. We're between major conflicts at the moment, but for safety reasons please keep your arms and legs inside the narrative. Thank you, and please prepare for take off.


Evelyn Bishop is an archaeologist, working and living in the Middle East for decades, leaving her daughter to grow up with an aunt back in America, so intent is she on her work. Once upon a time she found a cavern with a mysterious yet familiar symbol carved into the wall: a snake eating its own tail, the Ouroboros. It was part of exciting research, aided by an equally mysterious stranger, but the trail went cold. And now, many years later, an old acquaintance has appeared with photographs of a book bearing the symbol of the Ouroboros - a book he knows she would be interested in buying.

Unfortunately for Evelyn, she's far from the only party interested in the mythos behind that symbol. And the other guys don't want to play nice - in fact, it's not long before Evelyn, her daughter, and perhaps the whole of civilisation as we know it are in deadly danger...


The Sanctuary (yes, there's a definitive article in the title, Dooyoo!) is one of those trashy novels you know fine and well are going to be trashy when you pick it up for three quid odd in a supermarket. I got it third hand - very definitely a read and pass on kind of a book - and only picked it up to read when brain-fried after this year's exams. And yes, it's trashy and extremely daft. However, it's also fast-paced and easy enough to read, and as long as you know that then books like this do have their place: usually on a train or plane journey! You can see from my rating, though, that even though I had a bit of fun reading through this, I'm not exactly recommending it.

Part of the new sub-genre of Da Vinci Code-esque thrillers, there's nothing startling original about the plot. Take one age-old secret, bring it into the modern day where various good- and bad-guys are trying to get their hands on it, and throw in enough action to distract you from the sheer hokum. I don't read many books like this (well, let's face it - I'm utterly dismissing it already!), but this reminded me both of the ubiquitous DVC, and a great deal of Kate Mosse's Labyrinth - particularly the chapters flicking back to the past.

And, as ever, it's those brief glimpses backwards that are by far the more interesting. In this case, they follow someone with a huge secret: a secret author Raymond Khoury teases out way beyond irritation point. Like Dan Brown (in Digital Fortress, half the plot hung on the idea that no one knew what the NSA was), Khoury makes a big deal about the mystery of the Ouroboros symbol. Now, perhaps it's just that I'm odd, but I do know, vaguely, about this concept of circular infinity - it's been featured in an episode of Red Dwarf, for goodness sake! I imagine if you hadn't come across the word before, then perhaps the increasing tension might be fun. For me, however, it was teeth grindingly irritating! Assuming your audience's ignorance is incredibly rude of an author, I feel.

Anyway, three hundred years or so after the opening chapter, and a few all-too occasional flashbacks, we find ourselves in the Middle East, caught up in some pretty harrowing events. In fairness, Khoury does manage to handle the action sequences relatively well - I could see the events described, in terms of any number of movies set in desert conflicts. These events centre around Evelyn's daughter, Mia, as she finds herself caught between groups obsessed with the Ouroboros: including scholars, the CIA and UN, and a truly evil doctor willing to use humans as guinea pigs in the most horrific of experiments. What exactly is *his* interest in an old book and the archaeologist seeking it?

And so we are treated to a fairly clichéd tale of a lone female in desperate danger, playing a life-and-death game, with that new addition to the genre of some historical puzzle to solve. You'll notice I've not entirely told you what - the book author spins it all out for half the book, so who am I to spoil it for you? ;)

As you can probably tell, I wasn't all that impressed by The Sanctuary. I appreciated the easy read, and it filled several bus journeys pretty well, but beyond that there was nothing to recommend this book for me at all. The mysterious subject wasn't all that mysterious - and even without recognising the word 'Ouroboros', I think there are more than enough clues to figure out what the 'Holy Grail' of The Sanctuary is, long before Khoury gets round to his (not so) big revelation. Along the way, there's plenty of medical hokum thrown in, based in just a tiny bit of fact - however, unlike The Da Vinci Code (I can't have been the only one who googled for an image of The Last Supper to see if Dan Brown was waffling utterly!), I wasn't even tempted to find out how much was truth and what was hyperbole - in fact, I can't even remember what the bits may have even started a bit of research, as I dismissed it all as nonsense instantly.

There's a relatively decent sense of atmosphere, but the scenery was, for me, largely formed from remembering TV shows rather than Khoury's language alone - perhaps unsurprising, given the author started as a screenwriter? The characterisation isn't great - not terrible, but I definitely didn't feel anything for any of the players or their often vague motivations. Biggest negative, though, is that the hook everything hung on - that big secret - really wasn't all that well explored. I suppose it could have been a good idea, but at no point did it feel remotely believable to me, which is really a rather huge flaw! The weak ending did nothing to redeem it, either.

So there you go. It's an airport book, something to while away a few hours whilst travelling or otherwise needing to turn your brain off, and not the worst example of that kind of read, even if it's not really to my tastes. I don't know how it compares to Raymond Khoury's previous novel, 'bestseller', The Last Templar, and I can't say I'm rushing to find out. Try at your own peril!


~Boring bits~
Paperback 471 pages (Orion 2008)
First released in 2007
RRP: £6.99 (but you can have my copy for nothing! ;))

Summary: Sub-standard Da Vinci Code-esque thriller