KNOWN for combining action, history and the mystical, Learner's latest novel Sphinx follows her established themes.
Set in 1977, Sphinx is the story of Oliver, a geophysicist who works in the oilfields of Egypt during a time of political upheaval and social change.
His wife, Isabella, is a marine archaeologist and her family is part of the once-wealthy Italian-Alexandrian society that carries secrets of it's own.
Oliver is a pragmatic scientist, a man who always wants everything explained and verifiable. Oddly enough, he has an uncanny ability to identify when and where oil is going to be found; something he tries not to think about.
His wife, on the other hand, is deeply involved in the mystic. She believes unreservedly in the existence of a certain, ancient artifact that may, or may not, be able to change her world.
Learner's ability to unite various stands of plot, history, reality and fantasy is what makes her books so successful.
Her best selling The Witch of Cologne, followed the life of midwife in the mid 17th century and incorporated ghosts and spirits, real historical personages, as well as a strong female character.
Likewise, Sphinx combines fact and fiction but is less historically authentic, although the highly detailed descriptions of Egypt make up for this in many ways.
I really want to give away a major spoiler at this stage to explain why the very interesting Isabella takes a back seat to the less edifying Oliver; but I will resist.
Suffice to say, Oliver becomes the central character of the novel, which may explain why I became less and less interested in finishing Sphinx.
Which is a shame as there's nothing intrinsically wrong with the story as a whole, or even Oliver as a character. It's just that Isabella is so much more interesting.
Oliver eventually comes to realise that the astrolabe, the ancient Egyptian machine that his wife is searching for, is more than it seems and that a number of mysterious groups would do anything to get their hands on it.
Yes, it is about here that Sphinx degenerates into a fairly obvious adventure story with spies, trips around the world, ghostly images, weird happenings, unexplained deaths etc.
While it all works out in the end – there is a great twist actually which creeps up on the reader – Sphinx isn't as ground-breakingly interesting as Learner's previous work; particularly her breakthrough novel Quiver.
The erotic scenes in Sphinx are also missing that original raunchy aesthetic that Quiver had, and seem almost half-hearted in some passages.
Still, with the amount of pulp action being published these days, it's good to read a substantial novel with quality prose, interesting ideas and a relatively twisty plot.
Sphinx by Tobsha Learner is published by Harper Collins and is available from good book stores and online.