BONES OF THE SUN GOD

Back from Egypt, 13-year-old Sam Force has returned to his Boston boarding school.

The white boy is summoned from class to the headmaster’s office, where he’s informed that he’s been accepted to opera school in Switzerland. Sam hates singing, but it’s a good thing St. Albans’ headmaster and music teacher are so gullible as to believe this unlikely event. It’s an elaborate ruse orchestrated by Mary Verulam, Sam’s half-Egyptian, half-English hacker pal. Mary has arranged for Sam to travel to Belize to pick up his missing parents’ trail. It’s a good thing Mary has her own credit card; Sam wouldn’t be able to travel to Central America without Mary’s money or her intelligence. It’s Sam’s chance to learn more about his parents’ role in a global conspiracy involving a network of pyramids and temples around the world. The book is peppered with well-placed reminders of the first book’s events, but the conspiracy has too many pieces: a mysterious World War II submarine, the Ark of the Covenant, the Knights Templar, an evil, brown-skinned crocodile keeper and his “dark-skinned” (“like most of the locals”) henchman, and a network of nefarious figures bent on destroying the world swirl together confusedly.

The usual ordinary-boy-must-save-the-world-aided-by-a-much-smarter-sidekick plot.