IN a remote corner of the Sahara desert, a squad of Roman soldiers stumbles across a mysterious tower. That night they all die, annihilated by an unseen power.

One man survives: an Etruscan diviner and magician who was with the squad. He leaves a written record for posterity of the horror that lurks in this lost corner of the desert.

Two thousand years later, sometime after the First World War, archaeologist Philip Garrett has his own reasons for wanting to venture into the desert: his anthropologist father Desmond disappeared there. But there are others on his father's trail: a shadowy Vatican priest, a Foreign Legion colonel thirsting for revenge - and a psychopathic Legion deserter.

An Indiana Jones-style archaeological adventure, but without the wit or style. Manfredi has a reputation for writing well-researched historical adventures set in classical Rome and Greece. He should stick to them.