New fiction that "stirs the dust of ancient mysteries"... on Amazon Kindle and paperback

ON AMAZON

Update. "THE IBIS APOCALYPSE" - MOST-RATED IN EGYPTOLOGY THRILLER SERIES

Third in the Egyptology thriller series after 'The Smiting Texts'
and 'Hathor's Holocaust'...

Egypt’s forbidden power… The fate of the world written in stone.

Was Egypt's magical Book of Thoth originally carved in stone - on a stela - rather than written on a scroll?

Anson Hunter, controversial alternative Egyptologist and theorist, is obsessed with locating the forbidden Stela of Destiny before the wrong people get hold of it.

The Stela, or stone book, of Thoth, Egypt’s god of magic, is the most powerful and malefic source of esoteric texts ever written. The texts bring frightening power but also a terrible backlash. Twice in history the contents have come to light – the first time in the reign of Rameses the Great, linked with the Plagues of Egypt and the suffering of the Hebrews, and in 1939 when a German Egyptologist took rubbings of the stone texts to Hitler’s Germany before the horrors of World War II.

Israeli Intelligence and its allies in the USA become alarmed when the Destiny Stela threatens to break into history once again. As they are all too aware, the Stela of Destiny is the Holy Grail for organisations and conspirators with dangerous political and religious agendas, both in the USA and in Europe.

Anson embarks on an investigation under the cover of shooting a screen documentary, pursued by enemies and shadowed by striking Israeli Mossad agent Zara Margolin and suspicious Egyptian authorities, in a hunt that covers USA, UK and secret archaeological sites in Egypt.

Can he find and penetrate the deadly series of chambers of the Sanctuary of Thoth that guards the Stela of Destiny before a dangerous new dawn breaks for humankind?

‘The Ibis Apocalypse’ is a danger-fraught adventure that unfolds against the background of ancient Egypt’s enthralling legend and mythology.

Amazon paperback and Kindle

Egypt based action adventure - The Ibis Apocalypse excerpt

Egypt action adventure

Neues Museum, Museum Island, Berlin

“WHAT THE GERMAN people have, they keep,” Adolf Hitler famously responded when Egyptian authorities suggested that the famous bust of Queen Nefertiti in Berlin ought to be returned to Cairo.

Anson was standing among other admiring visitors in front of the bust of the iconic queen in a long gallery at the north cupola of the Neues Museum, when he recalled the Fuehrer’s response. The suggestions from the Egyptian authorities had risen to the level of rancorous clamour in recent years, yet there were still no signs that Nefertiti was going back to Egypt anytime soon. The queen’s image was everywhere, on postcards, in books and on publicity posters. Nefertiti had the pulling power of a superstar.

Was it James Bond’s creator Ian Fleming who’d remarked that the ancient queen of Egypt could make an entrance today in a designer gown and give the beautiful people a run for their money?

I never thought I’d agree with Hitler on any subject, Anson reflected, shaking his head in wonder at her beauty. The timeless elegance, lovely neck and airborne eyebrows produced a powerful effect on the beholder. If I had Nefertiti I wouldn’t part with her either.

Yet it was not always true that ‘what the German people have, they keep’ when it came to Egypt’s treasures, Anson thought, if there was any truth in the German informant's story about his grandfather’s returning of the Stela texts to Egypt.

A museum visitor moved in and stood beside Anson at the glass case, directing a jaded stare at Queen Nefertiti.

“Personally, I think she’s overrated,” the man said. He had a tired face and spoke with a lazy drawl. American.

“Stars never quite look the same off camera,” Anson consoled him.

He saw a movement reflected in the glass surface and looked around. A glimpse of a blurred head vanished behind an entranceway.

Was this his anxious and mysterious informant? He left the display case and went to see. No sign of Reiner Faltinger. Anson looked at his watch. How much longer do I give him? His eyes drifted back to Nefertiti. She was fine company, but he was beginning to feel a twinge of unease.

The tired man at the display case looked back at him and appeared disappointed. Perhaps he’d been hoping to strike up a conversation.

I’ve waited long enough, Anson thought. Coming to this meeting on an impulse had been a long shot. He could ill afford the time, let alone the cost.

Two men in dark suits, museum staff he assumed, intercepted him. “Please come this way.”

“What’s the problem?” They guided him to an elevator. “I didn’t book the guided tour.”

“No trouble,” the other said.

The doors slid open. They guided him inside. One pressed a button and the door closed, sealing him inside. They were contained men, yet they crammed the elevator like a crowd.

Anson had a sinking feeling.

“This isn’t the tour, is it?”

The one brushed aside his coat to reveal a handgun stuck in his belt.

“No trouble… from you.”

They shepherded him out of the lift and walked him to a storage area. His prospects grew dim, like the lighting inside. The place was a vault crammed with crates and with the cast offs of ancient Egypt; also with the casts of its former glories. A vast, brooding statue of the freakish pharaoh Akhenaten with his swollen hips and mad, sunken eyes overlooked the scene and several Nefertitis reared their slender necks on shelves. Plaster casts. They seemed dingy and old. Were they relics from the original museum’s decoration before it was bombed in the Second World War?

Museum store rooms were historical netherworlds, places of dusty shedding where unsightly things lived, broken things that were not meant to be seen any more, pieces of mummies, their heads, hands and feet, shattered statues, ugly magical figurines, cryptic fragments of writing on pottery shards, the remains in stone, wood and clay of gods pharaohs, men and creatures.

This place was an even more unnerving place in the company of the two, intent men who moved in closer to him.

“Okay, you’ve persuaded me,” Anson said. “I’ll take your explanatory tour. Starting with an explanation of what’s happening here.”

“You see that box?” The taller of them moved his head towards an open crate half-stuffed with packing chips. “You can go out of the museum in that, or on your own two legs.”

Where would the crate be headed? To Egypt? Returning artefacts from the museum? Not if the treasured bust of Nefertiti on exhibition was any example.

He reminded himself that this place was built on Museum Island. He could end up taking a trip to the river.

“Depending on?”

“Depending on whether or not you are convincing and tell us where you believe the missing stela to be.”

“The Destiny Stela, I take it?”

“Precisely.”

Who were they? Not the German law, he was guessing. Perhaps the New Dawn group his informer had warned him about.

“What about some introductions?”

“Meet my fist.”

Pain exploded in Anson’s face as a right-cross sent him crashing to the feet of Akhenaten.

“I will introduce my shoe.”

The second man introduced Anson to the point of a black leather shoe in the pit of his stomach. Anson gasped and doubled up on the floor.

Who said Germans didn’t have a sense of humour?

(Excerpt from The Ibis Apocalypse, no 3 in the Anson Hunter series of Egypt-based action adventures)

 Kindle and paperback

Where is Thoth hidden in Egypt? ANSWER.

The wonderful relief of Thoth stands behind a seated colossus of Rameses in the Temple of Luxor.

In order to view the image of Thoth inside the temple (and a matching image of the goddess Seshat), you have to squeeze between a wall and the back of the pharaoh's throne.

Where is this Egyptian god Thoth hidden in Egypt?

This is the finest depiction of Thoth, god of magic, wisdom and writing, and it's hidden from the view of most visitors and even local guides.

(Thoth appears directly beside, and facing, the paired image of Seshat in the temple of Luxor, hidden behind a seated statue of Rameses II.)


Thoth is at the heart of my novel 'The Ibis Apocalypse'. (Amazon Kindle and paperback.) Here is an excerpt...


 

Chapter 3

WHEN THE WOMAN came into the occult bookshop, Anson forgot about the German book browser and his incredible claims.

She was a dark beauty in a long black leather coat, and, promisingly, she looked quite mainstream, he thought. Definitely not a crank, this one. She swept a glance around the deserted interior.

“Tell me you haven’t just popped in here for directions,” he said hopefully.

“Hello Anson Hunter.” Angelic choirs began to sing inside the occult bookshop, or so it seemed to him.

“Come straight to the head of the queue,” he said.

“No need for crowd control here, I see.”

Crowd control. A strange quip. It had a law enforcement ring, he thought. She wasn’t the law, surely. He’d upset the Intelligence community in the past, but the police?

“Would you care for a signed copy?” he said. She had a calm, self-possessed manner.

“No, thanks.”

“No?” She shook her head and made her black hair swing. 

Not another non-reader. This called for desperate measures. “Look, I’ll give you money outside,” he said in a whisper.

“Meaning?”

“It’s been a bit slow in here today and I’ve got to encourage the bookseller. Let’s make her believe that someone’s going to read my book.”

She smiled. That mouth did not part easily with smiles, he guessed.

“I’ve read your book.” Angelic choirs returned to the occult bookshop. A precious reader. So they did exist. He warmed to the woman. He felt like asking for her signature.

“Zara Margolin,” she said, offering her hand in a surprisingly firm handshake. “You really believe that this ancient stone tablet actually existed?” she said.

“Yes, it actually did and it actually still does.” 

“And it has the powers you fear?” 

“I wrote a whole book in support of that belief.” It was as if a book alone were not enough for her. She wanted to hear it from the author himself.

“You believe the Stela has appeared in history at times before struggles and suffering? In the time of Rameses and the suffering of the Hebrews... and in Hitler’s Germany?”

Suffering - Old Testament - a Jewish woman. Did that account for her interest? She searched his face as he answered, her eyes almost level with his. The intensity of her gaze made him flinch. She was quite rangy, he noted, almost matching his lanky height.

“I’m sure of it,” he said. “In fact, I believe its message is about to resurface, if it hasn’t already done so.”

“This tablet would be very ancient,” she said.

“Exceedingly. It comes from the womb of history – from an age that the ancient Egyptians called Zep Tepi.”

“Zep Tepi,” she said after him. She played with the words.

“An age before the pharaohs, when divinities like Thoth were supposed to have reigned over Egypt.”

A frown briefly disturbed the smoothness of her forehead.

“Yes, but pre- the invention of writing, surely?”

“Not necessarily. They keep pushing back the date of Egypt’s invention of hieroglyphs with new discoveries. I believe writing goes back further than Egyptologists believe.”

“I forget. You’re alternative. But people always called it a scroll - The Scroll of Thoth.”

He shook his head.

“The first books, like the Ten Commandments, were in stone and Egyptian stelae were books in stone. So-called papyrus Scrolls of Thoth appeared later in the New Kingdom.”

“Okay. But to believe in the Stela of Thoth, you’ve got to believe in Thoth. An Egyptian god with a bird’s head.”

“We don’t know who, or what, Thoth may have been,” he said. “But even putting aside the question of whether or not a race called the Neteru, or the gods, actually existed at some distant age, consider it a case of inspired agency. Like the Bible. Egyptian religion and mythology tells us that Thoth was the first example of the divine mind, the logos, or the ‘word’ of creation as Christians call it. He was known as the master of wisdom, writing and time, symbolised by both the sacred ibis and the dog-faced baboon.”

“A bird and a baboon as the god of wisdom?”

“Not so unexpected. Have you ever looked at an ibis? The curve of its beak echoes a crescent moon, or perhaps the rim of an eclipse. Watch the measured way an ibis strides, picking out small fish, snakes, frogs and insects like a master scribe judiciously selecting his words. Thoth was also the god of time and measurement. Picture the way the ibis strides the fields of Egypt, pace by measuring pace, like a scribal surveyor of ancient times re-measuring the land and setting boundaries after mud from the inundation covered the river banks.”

“And a baboon?”

“Before man could utter words, baboons were facing the rising sun and chattering. Look into those deep-set eyes and it’s possible to believe that you’re looking into the depths of mysterious wisdom and it was mainly in the form of a baboon that scribes revered Thoth as the ‘Lord of Script...’”

 'The Ibis Apocalypse' is the third in my Anson Hunter Egypt adventure thriller series of 9 novels (Amazon Paperback and Kindle)

UPDATE - ANSON HUNTER RANGE 2024 on AMAZON

UPDATE: Egypt’s Forbidden Stone Book of Thoth…

The first books were written in stone... and so is the fate of the world.

The esoteric and forbidden Stela of Destiny was the most powerful tome ever written and sought by conquerors from time immemorial, including Rameses the Great, who incurred the anger of the god of Moses through its discovery by his son Khaemwaset. Features in my book The Ibis Apocalypse (Kindle and paperback, 3rd in the Anson Hunter Egypt series).

 Today the Stela of Thoth is the great secret of secrets that everybody wishes to find; there have been several well-financed expeditions into Egypt to seek it. It’s the Holy Grail for Hermetic and New Age adherents and some even believe that it is not just a metaphoric Grail, it is the mother of all Grail legends and that its appearance will be the harbinger of new enlightenment as well as a new order of the ages.

What is the power of the Stela? It’s a work of rather frightening thaumaturgy, a forbidden tome on stone said to have been composed by the Lord of Divine Words, Thoth, the god symbolised by an ibis, or by a cynocephalus baboon, ‘Mighty in his Wonderworking Formulae’. Thoth was the mysterious source of power of all amulets, spells and invocations of the gods, and inside this book was said to be all the magic of the world, the source of spiritual technology and power. It came with a reputation, a blurb along these lines…

When you read this work, you will behold and possess the powers of the earth, the sky, the waters, the infernal regions of the abyss - the underworld, that is - the mountains, beasts, birds, creatures, reptiles, the fishes of the darkest sea, as well as the magical powers of the gods of Egypt themselves...

 

In short, you would be established on high in this world and, in the Egyptians’ words, have the ability to work great wonders. It’s my belief that this forbidden Stela not only exists but its contents have resurfaced at several stages in history, all convulsive periods. I am convinced that they may be re-appearing in our time, judging by the current state of the planet.”

The individuals who found the book surged in worldly power and achieved astounding success. For a time. But there was a catastrophic catch… their fortunes followed a sharp trajectory. In the end disaster struck them. Why?

There was a price to pay. The forbidden Book of Thoth came with a backlash. 

Screen grab - opening scene of The Ibis Apocalypse, Amazon Kindle edition.

Prince Khaemwaset and his father Rameses discovered this truth after Moses called down assorted plagues on Egypt, culminating in the death of the firstborn. Then we come to Hitler, who learnt about the Texts’ repercussions after the Allied invasion. All who found the tome were ultimately beset by the compulsion to restore it to its rightful place.   UPDATE: Now all 10 Anson Hunter titles on Amazon with new "The Great Pyramid Eternity Key"