Don’t ya just love good old-fashioned pulp adventure stories? You know, the kind where there’s a fearless adventurer on a quest for some long-lost treasure, joined by loyal companions, as well as maybe some not-so-loyal companions, and plenty of exciting battles, ancient puzzles, and terrifying monsters.

Well, this is the book for you. Look at that cover; isn’t that just everything you want in an adventure book? Drew Struzan couldn’t have done it better.

The protagonist of the story is Merona Grant, the daring mercenary treasure-hunter and her faithful dog Argos. When she finds herself down on her luck after being double-crossed, a wealthy aristocrat offers Grant a job to lead her on a hunt for an ancient treasure. Grant accepts, on the condition that her friend, the burly Russian pilot, Sasha Durov, joins them as well.

Together, along with the beautiful Carlotta and the timid Dr. Watt, the group sets out in search of adventure.

What follows is a tale of derring-do in the vein of The Mummy (the 1999 one) or Indiana Jones. Of course, those films were themselves homages to an earlier era of adventure fiction. Indeed, Merona’s mercurial personality reminds me more of Charlton Heston’s character Harry Steele in Secret of the Incas than of Dr. Jones. Kudos to Williamson for creating a new character and setting for a new generation of adventure lovers.

I’d been wanting to read a good treasure-hunting book ever since I finished Peter Martuneac’s latest tale, and this one proved to be just the ticket. If you liked any of the stories I referenced above, check this one out.