Richard D’Agostino Rite of Passage

Rite of Passage

Richard D'Agostino

Medallion Press, Mar 2006, $6.99

ISBN 1932815546

Mother Nature is apparently fighting back as the earth undergoes dramatic climatic changes. The planet is shaken to its core by numerous off the Richter scale earthquakes, category 4 and 5 hurricanes, monstrous flooding, and other disasters. In the midst of the natural global pandemic, a portal splits open on the base of Cheops' Pyramid, leading to previously unknown passageways beneath the edifice.

Renowned Egyptologist Dr. Karl Cassim leads the investigation into the secret rooms below the pyramid. His team discovers in one of the passageways a prehistoric crystal cylinder seal. Before Cassim can decipher what the discovery means, assailants abduct his daughter, planning to use her as a pawn to negotiate what they want from the Egyptologist. Feeling trapped because he already knows the criticality of his work while worries about his beloved daughter, Cassim and his allies, American astronomer Julian Rutledge, British Egyptologist Sir E. Osborne Hunsdon, and museum curator Nancy Gottlieb, test the Seven Gates of Osiris, as an ancient prophecy warns of a coming of a New Age of Man that will change how we live today.

Egyptologist thriller fans and anyone who appreciates an excellent apocalyptic tale will want to read the action packed RITE OF PASSAGE. The key cast members, especially Cassim and his team, seem genuine; the electrifying storyline comes first with an Indiana Jones' Raiders of the Lost Ark style of thrills and chills. The abduction may place Cassim in an untenable position, but pales next to the world in peril plot that grips readers from the simple introduction to the "Beloved of Thoth" until the final confrontation.