Review - The Last Testament by Sam Bourne

Name: The Last Testament

Author: Sam Bourne

I have only read one of Sam Bournes books before, but it is one of my favourite (for the moment) type of books, so when I saw it in the library I had to take it.

The story: Maggie Costello is a retired mediator in international politics. She is asked to step in when the Isreali Prime Minister is allegedly nearly assasinated to attemp to bring the peace talks back onto the rail. However, when she arrives in Israel she finds that all is not as it seems.

Firstly, the "assasinator" was actually an old man with a note in his hand, who had been trying to contact the Prime Minister for days and who was then shot by the Isreali secret services. Secondly, there have since been a series of seemingly random killings and other incidents which are threatening to derail the whole process. Maggie discovers that these incidents are not as random as they seem and are all tied into a small clay tablet discovered by this old man. She eventually teems up with the "assassins" son in a treasure hunt across Jerusalem to find the clay tablet and hopefully find out what is so important about them.

What I liked:

• the descriptions of Jerusalem and the way he set out the scene. I really felt like I was there at times
• the fast paced adventure, I could not read at all for most of yesterday and really felt it pulling at me to see what would happen next
• the clues/hunt: I loved the way they were given a little bit of information and had to figure it out themselves
• the way Maggie and Uri were 2 relatively normal people without backing from any big powers and yet they still managed to get there in the end with what they had at their disposal

What I didn't like:

• not too much really
• I did get a little confused since there was a little bit of jumping around between 2003, the time of the book and a few weeks before that.
• Maggie had some deep secret past which was never really discussed, I would like to have heard more about that (may have been discussed in his first book.)

Would I read it again: Yes

Would I read other books by this author: Yes