I had a lot of fun in read this historical novel about conspiracies and mythical early Christian documents.
Well plotted and entertaining.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Thank you NetGalley and Sapere Books for this eCopy to review

I enjoyed The Lost Gospels, it is a good conspiracy adventure. The descriptions of their quest in Egypt were particularly enjoyable.

We are following rogue Captain John Campbell who has reinvented himself following bad debts in London. He convinces antiquity collector Robert Babcock to let him join his quest to hunt for rare Christian manuscripts in Egypt. Queue lots of trouble and excitement as we follow their journey.

I have to say I really enjoyed this book however I guessed the twist long before it was disclosed. I love everything Egypt and I did like the descriptions of the travel through Egypt as well as the historical references to the post gospels. All in all a really good read.

Thank you Sepere Books (publisher) and Stephen Taylor (author) for giving me access to this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

While fleeing his debts, the scoundrel John meets the noble scholar Robert Babcock who takes John along as his assistant on his travels in Egypt where he is searching for old, Christian documents. They do find what he is looking for, but instead of being filled with joy, dread takes its place as the truth does not match his wishes.

I highly enjoyed the descriptions of the travels through Egypt. I am no historian, so I can't say how well the author captured the truth in how it would have been like, but historic fiction is allowed to take some liberties after all. It felt authentic, and the detailed descriptions were amazing. The details regarding foods and clothing were also remarkable, and I highly enjoyed them. There was clearly a lot of effort put into these descriptions and it paid off.

In addition to the detailed descriptions, I was impressed by the part where the MC was debating with himself about what he should do with the troublesome manuscript when it was left to him to decide its fate. The dilemma of how making it public would affect the world as he knew it vs upholding the standard of truth no matter what was interesting. I can't say I agree with his decision, but how he came to it was one of the true highlights of this book.

While the details in the descriptions of everything around them is the authors strength, there is room for improvement in character descriptions and interactions, and in the telling of the story. The first half of the book was a struggle to get through due to this, as they had not yet made it to Egypt. I am glad, however, that I did stick with it, because the second half of the book was highly enjoyable.

I think that a lot of improvement would have been done by switching from first-person narrator to third-person. This is a story narrated by a self-absorbed scoundrel, and the first-person pov just highlights this. Especially the first half of the book is an endless tirade of "I, I, I". Even when writing about a less self-centered person, I find the first-person narrative to be a risky choice and in this case even more so. The only reason I can think of to choose first-person pov would be if it was to create an in-depth study of the character of the narrator. This story, however, does not do that as the focus is on the historical descriptions.

Shortening down the time it took to get the main character and his companion to Egypt would also have been preferrable. Too long a time (almost half the book) was just preparations. As the strength of the story was the historical, ,detailed descriptions of Egypt, it would have greatly benefitted the end result if that would have been the main part of it, instead of trying too hard to set up the story first. I almost gave up on several occasions while reading...

When in Egypt, the "adventure" itself was the weak point, as everything was just solved too easy. There was no tension, not even during the few setbacks. The MC just somehow got through it, saving the day by outsmarting everyone and just being *that* good. Quite a lot of "Gary Stu" vibes here.

The end of the book tries to show some character growth, but in that it also fails. The "apology" to his old friend that he betrayed was horrible. If I had been that friend, I would just have been further insulted by such an "apology". The MC remains egocentric and without any actual growth or introspection all through the book.

3/5 stars, because albeit I thought it was a two-star all through the first half, the detailed descriptions in the second half had me mesmerized. Cut off the first half and switch to third-person pov to lessen the focus on the self-absorbed MC and this could turn in to a potential five-star story.

I do feel this one has great potential and would love to read some more stories by the author in the future. Keep up the good work!