Byzantine Gold by Chris Karlsen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“Indulge me.”
“What’s my second choice?”
“Death by nagging.”
“As I suspected.”

Once again, Charlotte Dashiell, an American archaeologist, and her lover, Atakan Vadim, a Turkish government agent, are going to a dig. This time the crew is set to bring up a Byzantine Era warship carrying an unusual cargo of gold off the coast of Northern Cyprus. A terrorist cell has targeted the gold; Tischenko has tracked down Charlotte — will the lovers get time to further their relationship, or will this be their last excavation?

As in the first book, the characterization in Byzantine Gold was well done. Charletto and Atakan’s relationship grows in this book, and there are a number of well-written sex scenes. The downfall of this book was it’s length — it was very short compared to Golden Chariot, and lacked some of the details and descriptions that could have been added. The end could have been drawn out a little more to make it not feel so rushed, but it was still satisfactory.

This is a tension-filled underwater adventure sure to entertain those readers that enjoy romantic suspense. Charlotte and Atakan face some hardships — and not only from Tischenko — and come to find a balance in their relationship off-site as well as on-site.

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