Matt McAvoy Book Review

You know exactly what you’re going to get when you read Gary: intelligent storytelling, immensely well-researched attention to historical detail, and a top-quality production value.  He is a professional at the top of his game, and The Pompeian Betrayal is another gripping entry in his series of puzzling historical mysteries – though in my view this has a touch more action than some others in the series.

Gary’s mysteries always have the same ingredients: a priceless ancient artefact, a deeply theological connection, a high-level, clandestine conspiracy, and his beloved team of amateur sleuths and their soldiers, always ready to put their lives on the line for the importance of historical preservation.  I like this story, about a sadly doomed philosopher buried under the volcanic carnage of Mount Vesuvius two millennia ago, with evidence of the existence of a dangerously ideological religious order – which the team learns to their peril is still very determined in present times.  As always with Gary’s work, there is a much broader ratio of fact to fiction.  He is a great writer, to be sure, but his real star shines through his methodology and research; he is a genuine example to historical fiction writers.

Whilst I always enjoy Gary’s work, I’m not overly enamoured with many of his favourite characters, to be honest – no particular reason, I just wonder if perhaps they have run their course for me.  However, I’m not a reader who favours ongoing serial formats and recurring characters; it all begins to feel a little preordained, without real threat because you don’t really expect the unexpected.  I prefer unique content which completely throws the reader off their board without warning.  Gary’s series arguably don’t tend to do this.  They are aimed more at readers who love to befriend and root for characters they adhere to, which is great, and accounts for a lot of readers.  I’m just someone who likes to see the “main” character’s unexpected demise at the end of Act Two, perhaps.  In this respect, The Pompeian Betrayal, along with the other Vatican Mysteries books, could be considered formulaic: a discovery is made, the team is called in, they face a major threat and their Swiss Guard contingency steps up.  The variety in the series comes from the nature of the mystery itself, the artefact – almost like Indiana Jones: you generally know what it will be about and how it will go; the journey is just about solving the puzzle and defeating dangerous antagonists along the way.

If you love that, this is absolutely the book for you.  As always, Gary has delivered another masterclass in his genre, again end-capped by a superb appendix of historical notes.  Prolific and relentlessly high quality, I am in no doubt that he is already well into the team’s next adventure.