The Mesopotamian Riddle

Reviews

"Listening to this history of the 1850s competition to decipher ancient Mesopotamian inscriptions is like listening to a Jules Verne or Conan Doyle adventure yarn. Narrator Matthew Lloyd Davies is a familiar voice in mystery and suspense fiction, and he clearly relishes what is not a musty story of scholarly reflection, but a cliff-hanger full of surprises and unexpected twists. Davies is a wonderful narrator for this kind of work, droll and cosmopolitan and silken to the ear. The process of decipherment will especially appeal to fans of espionage and decoding. But against the backdrop of Europe’s historical relations with the Middle East, this is a story with many layers—and many buried treasures."
—AudioFile Magazine “Written with brilliant characterization and edge-of-your-armchair suspense. As in the best detective novels, the story of those who uncover the mystery is as intriguing as the mystery itself.”
—Julian Sancton, New York Times bestselling author of Madhouse at the End of the Earth “Joshua Hammer tells a splendid tale.”
—Barry Strauss, author of The War That Made the Roman Empire “Stirring.... [An] elegantly written, fascinating account.”
—Pittsburgh Post Gazette
  “An adventure tale for puzzle lovers and Indiana Jones fans alike.”
—Washington Post “This tale of dusty scholars could have been as dry as the desert. But by exploring the relationship between [an] ‘often combustible’ threesome, Mr. Hammer makes dead languages speak again.”
—The Economist "An archeological triumph receives the history it deserves. Readers who enjoyed the fictional adventures of Indiana Jones might imagine that real-life archeologists aren’t so exciting, but journalist Hammer, author of The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu, may change their minds."           
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Joshua Hammer is a marvelous storyteller, and he has grabbed hold of one of history’s great yarns. His rollicking tale, combining intellectual heft and fast-paced vigor, places readers ringside as rivals struggle with a deciphering mystery that had stymied the world for two thousand years.”
—Edward Dolnick, New York Times bestselling author of The Writing of the Gods "The Mesopotamian Riddle is equal parts enthralling and erudite, a story of linguists who battled marauding bandits, diseases and disasters . . . with nothing less than the veracity of the Hebrew scriptures and the roots of western civilization at stake." 
—Barbara Demick, author of Eat the Buddha  Expand reviews