Sphinx by Robin Cook

I have only read one Robin Cook book, and that was his most recent Cell. He's has written a plethora of books, and I thought I should give some of them a chance. His earliest stuff was supposed to be really good, so I thought I would start there. I just finished reading Sphinx, which was written in 1979, and it was made into a movie starring Lesley Anne Down and Frank Langella. The plot covers the trouble that Erica Barton gets herself into when she decides to travel to Egypt on her own. Erica is an Egyptologist by training, and she wants to escape from a boyfriend who wants to marry her. Erica is a big foolish, and she finds herself in a precarious situation because she does really dumb things, like going off on her own to look for Egyptian artifacts and trusting good looking men.

The book is a product of its time, with Erica acting like many women in the 1970s who wanted to break free from male bonds that kept the women in demeaning roles. There were some action scenes and thrills, however, compared to the fast-paced thrillers of today, Sphinx seems a bit on the tame and lame side. I kept on waiting for something really exciting to happen, and I had to wait until the last 30 pages of the book. Even then the tension was quickly resolved. Cook did some research on Egyptology, but overall, I found the book to be unsatisfying. I think that's why it took me so long to drag through the book.