Golden Chariot by Chris Karlsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another (The Iliad)

Charlotte feels the pull of Hektor as if he were speaking to her, begging her to prove his existence. From this feeling comes an obsession (though she wouldn’t call it that) with the Trojan War and her research topic. Hoping to find evidence to support her theory, she embarks on the archeological recovery of a ship from that time period off the coast of Turkey. However, the agent assigned to guard the sight is murdered and the replacement agent, Atakan, must find his killer — even if it is Charlotte.

Fine details of ancient pottery, statues, figurines, and other relics are brought to light in this tale of intrigue, murder, and passion, which, along with the dive and wreck images, give a life to the surroundings in which the characters play. The characters themselves are full of quirks and different ways of looking at things, which also gives them a “realness” that the reader can relate to even if they’re not familiar with archeology or the Trojan War.

Golden Chariot keeps a solid pace and offers a refreshing twist at the end, the realizations that the characters come to seem to be dealt with in a way that showing just how far they have come.

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