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The Pharaoh Key  By  cover art

The Pharaoh Key

By: Douglas Preston,Lincoln Child
Narrated by: David W. Collins
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Publisher's summary

Gideon Crew - brilliant scientist, master thief, intrepid adventurer - is shocked when his former employer, Eli Glinn, vanishes without a trace, and Glinn's high-tech lab Effective Engineering Solutions shuts down seemingly overnight.

Fresh off a diagnosis that gives him only months to live, Crew is contacted by one of his former coworkers at EES, Manuel Garza, who has a bead on one final treasure hinted at in EES's final case, the long-awaited translation of a centuries-old stone tablet of a previously undiscovered civilization: The Phaistos Disc.

What lies at the end of the trail will either save Gideon's life - or bring it to a sudden, shocking close. Crew once again faces incredible odds - but as Gideon has proved again and again, there's no such thing as too great a risk when you're living on borrowed time.

©2018 Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (P)2018 Hachette Audio

What listeners say about The Pharaoh Key

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Don’t waste a credit!

What a huge disappointment. I am a huge Preston/Child fan and cannot believe they would serve this up to their readers. Terrible plot, content and ending.

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52 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Disappointed

I feel like I just finished watching a Saturday morning cartoon, very poor effort by two very good authors.

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42 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

I wanted to love it...

The phrase, meah, comes to mind. It was a good enough adventure in the end, but if you're a fan of the Gideon Crew books and the Ice Limit releases specifically, this just falls short. The characters are watercolor versions of their prior representations and I was hard pressed to become invested as a reader. It's worth reading. It's just not a book that brings anything of consequence to the series. In that, I am disappointed.

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30 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Jumped the Shark

With this book my fear (started after the last two Pendergast books) that Doug and Linc have jumped the shark are confirmed.

To be clear I am a long term raging fan of Doug and Linc. It will be sometime before I pick up another of their new novels...I have already read all the others...

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29 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Fell asleep; didn’t miss anything

This was...not good. I am a big Preston/Child fan, but this didn’t just miss the mark, it wasn’t even in the right ballpark. The characters didn’t make sense; I could tell the female protagonist wasn’t what she seemed from the beginning, and it’s ridiculous the men wouldn’t think the same. But the worst part was I fell asleep while listening to it, missed a couple of hours, but just didn’t care enough to go back and listen to them. I was able to figure out what happened just by listening to the last half hour or so. If you’ve listened to all of the Gideon Crew books, you may feel compelled to listen to this one, as I was, but try to resist the compulsion.

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20 people found this helpful

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Better than I expected

Considering the trajectory of this pair of authors and their current collaborations, this was better than I expected but still woefully inferior to some of their earlier writings. At least I didn't finish this one with muscle spasms in my orbital sockets from rolling my eyes -- which has been routine the last few novels from these guys. The plot felt a little borrowed and bordered at times on one of the old comedy routines of Abbott and Costello meet *insert the monster of your choice here*. I don't know where the pair is going with this Gideon series (I've heard rumors of this being the swan song of Gideon) but can see possibilities with a new Eli Glinn vs. Manuel Garza series centered on the mystery of the Phaistos Disc (also spelled Phaistos Disk, Phaestos Disc). One of the most famous archaeologic mysteries that still has scholars scratching their heads, I think Preston and Child could give readers some of their former clever fun coming up with their own brand of a *scientific explanation* of the puzzling ancient clay disk (second millennium B.C.). To appreciate this novel you have to really be a fan of Preston/Child. There's too much back story to just pick this one up, the fifth in the Gideon Crew series, and be up to speed with Gideon and his crew.

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16 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Weak attempt to bring closure to this series

Overall the Gideon Crew series has been another masterpiece for Preston & Child in character development and creative plots. Unfortunately, this edition may be their weakest. They come across as trying too hard to end the series instead of using the strengths of the series to tell a compelling story.

A word to authors, Crew has became my favorite character surpassing Pendergast. Both characters have the ability to see things that others do not. Pendergast approaches situations with refinement and a Sherlock like interpretation of details. Crew exhibits a human, if not reckless with a plan, handling of situations to manipulate them to successful outcomes. While Pendergast might leave you in awe and aloft, Crew draws you into his adventures and life. I certainly hope that Preston & Child continue the keep Crew around.

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8 people found this helpful

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so so

I don't feel like they were up to par on this story kinda feel cheAted

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8 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Disappointing

I have 600+ books in my Audible library, this is the third book I am commenting on and the first one I ever gave a really dire rating.
Lame plot, compete change in characters, so many logic mistakes I stopped counting, changing moral values all the time (ok that effects reality, still I don't like it)

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7 people found this helpful

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Very disappointing

Basically get lost in the desert no water get miraculously recused, rinse repeat! What happened, I love the authors (especially Pendergast) but this is one of the worst books I have listened to!

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7 people found this helpful