The Midas Code (aka The Vault)

Rating: 4/5

Genre: Thriller/Mystery

Tag Line: "He who controls this map controls the riches of Midas...."

Legends tell the story of a legendary king whose touch turned things to gold. The touch became so famous as did the King that even today a person who profits from any undertaking is said to have the touch - King Midas's Touch.

It is very sad that stories such as that of King Midas's have been left unsaid as more and more writers today focus on contemporary terrorism and combat novels rather than indulge in the lore' s of old. Terror sells these days literally.

Tyler Locke - engineering genius who likes nothing better than tinkering with machines and creating new machines is held to ransom by a master thief Jordan Orr who wants Locke to lead him to King Midas's Tomb. Before Locke can say no or scoff at Orr, Orr delivers a chilling message to Locke - the ferry Locke is commuting in has been rigged to blow. That is unless Locke can disarm the bomb.

Locke finds the bomb and learns that to disarm it he must solve an engineering puzzle in ancient Greek. Surprisingly Locke finds that the puzzle has been put together by him a couple of days ago using the pages from Archimedes's Codex provided by Orr. As Locke disarms the bomb with help from Stacy Benedict a classical language expert, he learns another truth from Orr - his father has been kidnapped along with Stacy's sister. To save them Locke & Stacy must find the tomb of Midas in Naples in 5 days failing which Orr will kill his hostages.

As Locke and Stacy race across London and Naples to decipher the map left behind by the legendary inventory Archimedes using his manuscript, they confront the sexy and ruthless Gia Cavanno - an Italian crime boss who's on her own quest to find the Tomb; take the riches for herself and kill Orr in that order.

Caught in the struggle between two ruthless and cunning enemies' hell bent on outwitting each other and claiming the secret of King Midas for them, Locke and Benedict must forge an alliance and work with Orr while waiting for an opportunity to strike even or rescue the hostages from his grasp.

As Locke with his friend Westland and Stacy move closer to the tomb they find that Cavanno & Orr have been tracking their every step inspite of their best efforts. The Midas Code uses The Archimedes Codex, the Antikythera Mechanism and the Stomachion to weave a plausible tale of King Midas's Tomb and his golden touch which is still active after 2000 years.

As Locke tries to outwit both his adversaries while trying to find the Tomb, he also finds that Orr is planning on using a dirty bomb somewhere in the United States.

Verdict: The Midas Code is an amazing mystery put together using ancient puzzles and modern scientific technology. Read it.