The Devil's Legacy

Reviewer: Kelsey
Author: Tom Jackson
Pages: 324
Format: eBook only
Rating: 7 out of 10

Summary (Thanks GoodReads): The opening of Pandora’s Box creates pandemonium in the office of the British Prime Minister. A team is assembled to solve a two hundred year old conspiracy in order to prevent the Box’s incredible secrets from being revealed to the world and plunging British society into chaos. Will the search for truth be successful? And will it result in the restoration of a country’s stolen heritage?

What is the bizarre umbilical cord that links the 200-year old theft of the Parthenon Marbles to the Turkish Governor of Athens, Jack the Ripper, Winston Churchill, the Titanic, Napoleon Bonaparte, the British Royal family, an obscure nineteenth century Italian artist and a Koala bear?

The British government’s decision to return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece triggers the opening of Pandora’s Box, covertly held for over 100 years in the vaults of the British Museum. And thus the first appalling secret is revealed--the Parthenon Marbles are counterfeit.

A team comprising archaeological experts and secret service agents is assembled under the leadership of a young female lawyer and Parthenon expert. The team’s mission is to find the real Marbles, and ensure their return to Greece within a six-month deadline.

Success must be achieved against an intensifying background of treason, competition from an American billionaire collector, and the intervention of the Greek mafia.

My thoughts: This is hands down the most creative book that I've ever read. Only this book could take the Pandora's box, the Titanic, Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes, World Wars, Napoleon, the mafia, and multiple countries and tie them all up together in a way that makes perfect sense and makes you question quite a lot about the world all at the same time. It was incredible! It was full of surprises too which kept things fresh. It helped that I was a history lover before I read this because I could fall back on what knowledge I already had. That made the book seem more real, more plausible. The little tidbits of love interest on the side really helped too.

I also really liked how the novel was laid out. It is done with flashbacks but they don't just come randomly. Every time the characters get another piece of information there is a flashback that explains it. That was a really good way to work it out.

It ended well. Everything was tied up and it was made to still make complete sense. It was a very good ending with surprise twists.

P.S. You really need to focus to read this book. It gets pretty complicated and it's a very intricate web. It's worth the work though so don't worry.