The Cairo Codex (The Justine Trilogy Book 1)

I wavered between three and four stars and settled on three. On the one hand, this book was very well researched as regards the historical aspects, such as the relationship between the Copts and Muslims in Egypt, and landmarks, roads, and buildings. Either the author actually lived in Cairo, or she studied every map she could lay here hands on.The premise of the book is that a small diary, or "codex," is found by Justine, the main protagonist, while she is in a cave under a church and an earthquake occurs. The codex turns out to be the diary of Mary, mother of Jesus. However, it mentions that Jesus had a twin sister who died in infancy, and that Mary was not a virgin, but had had intercourse with Joseph several times before conceiving Jesus. Will this "codex" be made public? Will it upset Christians, Muslims, Essenes, and will it cause instability in Egypt and possibly the world? This was a good story line for the book, and the way the author chose to deal with the information was interesting to a point. The point where I lost interest is when the codex is stolen, apparently with the blessings of all these different religious leaders, because they don't want this anti-Biblical information made public.One of the real problems I had with the book was that not much really happened for very long stretches of time. We find Justine involved in many philosophical conversations with friends, co-workers, and herself. While the inclusion of historical facts was interesting, they sometimes seemed to take away from the plot of the book simply because there were so many of them to read which were not relevant to the story.

My wife, an avid reader, almost invariably reads a book from cover to cover even if she dislikes it early on. With this novel she made an exception and quit after 100 pages. I read it to see why. The answer turned out to be: It's awful -- in many ways. To call it cliché-ridden is to understate the case seriously. At least one per page. The author also acknowledges the help of not one, but two writing coaches. Alas, even if they both did their best, they were unable to overcome the author's inability to construct a novel. Other reviewers note the presence of lots of local color. Indeed! But these passages are inserted willy-nilly, as if the author suddenly remembered, :Oh, I must insert some descriptions of Cairo. But she sticks them in apropos of absolutely nothing that is going on in the story. She interrupts the plot to offer us a page out of National Geographic, then sudden picks up with the plot again. Re: the plot. It is, at best, a poorly constructed romance novel. As a mystery? In one scene she has someone following someone else and trying to be very careful not to be noticed, of course. Except he's wearing a red plaid jacket, merely one of many not-well-thought-out details. If this is the first of a trilogy, I hope Ms. Lambert either spares us the sequels or else has them ghost-written. A fiction writer she ain't.

I am greatly looking forward to the next book in the trilogy. I greatly enjoyed the exploration of 'what it' in this novel. How would the world react to one of the basic beliefs in Christianity and other religions was proven to be untrue. How far would people go to either bring this information to light, or go to make sure that the information and the people who discovered it disappeared entirely. What affect would it have on religion and politics?

The theme of this book as related to history and women in Egypt was interesting and written by someone who had spent time there. The information on religion and history was informative, and the description of sites and Cairo was fairly authentic. However, the book would have benefited from more editing. Many aspects of the plot seemed contrived, and maybe existed as framework for the multitude of history and facts presented. I liked the book and it recalled things we had seen in Egypt.

Such an intriguing story about a young woman who becomes an anthropologist and returns to Cairo to work with a grant funded foundation for education girls. Monumental challenges and nuances of the Muslim world provide a context for an incredible story about a codex that dropped out of a crack in a wall during an earthquake. The story takes off from there in a rush. Lambert weaves a believable tale about the complexity of 3 major religions who may not willingly accommodate new foundational information and the difficulty for the main character to determine who is a good guy or a bad guy. This is a terrific read. I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Interesting archeological/anthropological mystery. Good character development, a page-turning plot! I read the ebook purchased through Amazon and will be purchasing Lambert's next book in The Justine Triology! My only complaint is with the electronic formatting at the beginning of each chapter which significantly interfered with Amazon's text-to-speech program. This formatting error made it necessary to restart the text-to-speech pgm EVERY chapter (& this book had a lot of chapters!) I have read over 120 e-books using Amazon's amazing text-to-speech program, this is the first time I've encountered this problem. Regardless, I truly enjoyed The Cairo Codex & highly recommend this author!

From cell. Intriguingly captivating for any historically, philosophically inclined metaphyician. Nicely written and not as contived as Davinci Code. A good read that energized some of my own curiosity and long held suspicions. Good fiction holds a mirror to the reader for that person to get a peek at their doubts and beliefs. Try it you may like it.

Two wonderful stories, each within the other. One is historical, the other contemporary. Together they offer suspense and intrigue and a possible new reality. The author's knowledge of Cairo is wonderful. Her descriptions of the old and the new will make you want to visit! I add this to the other reviews.