The final Indiana Jones prequel book to be written by Max McCoy is certainly his best (of the four he wrote) and I would say in the top three of the whole batch of 12 original prequels. There is still one more prequel book to go, written by Steve Perry but it was released ten years after this one as an attempt to reinvigorate the series but evidently fell flat.

This novel is a straight forward Indiana Jones novel, very reminiscent of the original Indy film trilogy, and does not try to make Indy into some different kind of character. It takes place in 1934 which is just one year prior to the events of “Temple of Doom” and two years prior to “Raiders of the Lost Ark” so it is easy to picture Harrison Ford rather than Sean Patrick Flannery as I felt more inclined to do with the early prequel books. This time around, circumstances force Indy to go in search of the Staff of Aaron (the one Moses used to call for the the plagues, etc.). His adventures take him from Shaanxi Province, China, to the deserts of Iraq and on into Cairo, Egypt. Since Max McCoy is the author, you can be sure there is plenty of accurately portrayed vintage aircraft involved. Accompanying Indy is a mother and daughter magician act who provide some nice illusions to assist Indy in his getaways. It's also good to see old friends like Sallah who foreshadows some of the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I thoroughly enjoyed this action-adventure yarn. I’m an Indiana Jones fan from the very beginning and I found this novel to be a good rendition of the character and faithful to the series.