The Bone House

A little while ago I had the pleasure of reading The Skin Map, which is the first book in the Bright Empire series by Stephen Lawhead. You can read my review here.
 
The Bone House is the second in the three part series. The book opens with an introduction to Douglas Flinders-Petrie and his sidekick, Snipe, who are trying to retrieve an ancient book from the British Museum. Douglas hopes the book will help him decipher some of the hieroglyphics on the skin map.

We follow Kit's entrance into a completely new world (to him) as he follows Mina's instructions and treks through the sweltering desert. In a different time, Alexander Flinders-Petrie returns and we learn about the naming of his son. The naming appears to have some subsequent significance but we are not told what that is yet.

We are given an insight into the character of Archelaeus Burleigh as we learn of his parentage and early hardships in life and how he rose to his current position. There is an exciting description of a particularly desperate chase as Kit and Giles try to elude him. And then, finally, we come to the chapters concerning the title of the book.

I enjoyed this book as it filled in a lot of the missing pieces from the previous book. The picture is becoming more complete. I was also prepared for the movement from one time to another and even almost regretted how the last chapters seemed to stay in the same time 'zone'!

I am very much looking forward to the final instalment. Having read these two books in quick succession I was rather keen to read the third, but found out I will have to wait nearly a year! It comes out in September 2012!

Oh well, all good things come to those who wait. :)

This ebook was obtained free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program.