The Third Gate - Lincoln Child This being the first in the Jeremy Logan series, I expected a lot of info dumping which we got but just not in the vein I expected. Jeremy Logan is a self-titled enigmalogist, someone who debunks or confirms bizarre events - ghosts, haunted houses, vengeful spirits etc. Jeremy joins the high tech expedition to the Sudd where the gang is hoping to uncover the tomb of King Narmer who unified Upper and Lower Eqypt 5000 years ago. However, Jeremy doesn't really do anything. Oh yeah he takes out a device once or twice to measure the air but that's basically it. The other bizarre instances are easily and quickly debunked. Though the horrific curse is spoken of, again and again, nothing really comes of it. The only real thing of interest and which would explain Jeremy's presence isn't given any front time. It is spoken of only by two characters and only once with no investigation. I thought this defeated Jeremy's purpose and the expedition itself.

The location of the tomb is very creative and the technology used to overcome these issues ingenious. The whole description of the site and how the crew overcame specific things was very well done and provided a perfect visual for the reader to feel part of the action.

Unfortunately, there really wasn't any character development of anyone including Jeremy. Porter Stone was an ass and after touting him as being the greatest archeologist in the world, he did some strange things that a real archeologist wouldn't have done. Come to think of it, archeologist March was the same way. The author just glossed over the facts or made up them up to suit the story. The archeological part of the book fell flat for me. I'm intrigued by Ancient Egypt and read quite a lot of books on archeological digs some fiction and some non-fiction.

Ultimately I thought the slow-paced story was intriguing but the interesting parts were rushed and not explored in depth. Heck people were dying and the weird circumstances were barely discussed. Wasn't that the reason Jeremy was on the expedition in the first place - to explain the unexpected? I thought it bizarre that no one really cared when someone got killed. It certainly didn't stop them from doing the same thing that got someone else killed. The fact that secondary characters were killed was strange too (heck they weren't even secondary, how about tertiary? (is that a word?). I mean who really gives a crap if someone you've never heard of is suddenly center stage and ends up dead in the same paragraph? You're not invested in these characters so what's the point.

All that said, I did enjoy this book but thought it lacked the panache of the Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child collaborations.