The Copper Scroll by Robyn Nyx is an action-adventure story and puzzle with a romance between the adventurers reminiscent of Indiana Jones or Lara Croft. I recommend that you read the Golden Trinity, the first in the series, which gives you some deeper background to the characters. If you can’t get hold of it, don’t worry, Nyx explains past events succinctly to keep you on track.
Chase Stinsen is an academic archeologist with an innate sense of ethics and belief in the law. In contrast, her lover Rayne Marcellus has spent most of her life hunting treasure for sale to the highest bidder with little thought to the law or public ownership. Her relationship with Chase is making her have second thoughts about the underworld that she operates in. Chase meanwhile is bending her ethics with a little burglary to right what she sees as a wrong.
The discovery of the Copper Scroll gives Chase and Rayne the possibility of working together. They have to work out how to do this from their different worldviews and afterward live with themselves and each other. We follow them trying to do this when they are sponsored and accompanied through their mission by one of Rayne’s treasure collectors and his ‘heavies’. The dichotomy of legal against illegal and good versus bad is beautifully thought through and plays out as we are swept along in the adventure.
Pros And My Favourite Parts
Where to start? There aren’t enough of these action and adventure stories with strong female leads available, and this series is undoubtedly top-notch. The story grips you from the beginning and keeps moving along at an incredible pace, the writing is flowing, and I couldn’t stop reading once I started. Two cups of coffee went cold as I was tunneling underground and trying to work out how the puzzle would be solved.
Nyx has the ability to get you into the heads of her characters, and Chase and Rayne are no exception; and I loved that she showed us that not everything in life is always black and white. Their love and romance are things to read and soak up, but there are so many questions asked by the environment surrounding them. Can their love survive the world they live in, their separation while working, and their ethical differences?
I love Raynes self-appointed protectors Ginn and Tonyck who contrast with the male heavies looking out for the treasure collector. Their differences and similarities are both another factor in the story and provide humor with their interactions.
Cons And Heads Up
None.
The Conclusion
This book is top of my action-adventure list if you hadn’t already gathered, and I’ve already re-read it twice. I thought The Golden Trinity was good, it had my heart racing, and I was awash with adrenaline in places, but The Copper Scroll surpasses it. I’m just waiting for Book 3 and the film series.
Excerpt from The Copper Scroll by Robyn Nyx
“Rayne, she’s gone. Gone. Vanished. We came home from the opera, and the door was wide open. And she was gone, Rayne. You have to help.”
Rayne struggled to place the voice rattling off her words like rapid fire. “Isabella?”
“Yes, Rayne, yes. My ancestor has been stolen from me, Rayne. You must come. You must find her.”
“Someone’s stolen Zenobia’s tomb?” Rayne stood and her tablet fell to the floor but bounced, unharmed, on the plush, thick carpet. She picked it up, placed it on the oak desk, and typed in a search. “How? I thought your house was wired to the cabinieri? You’ve got vicious guard dogs. An unbeatable alarm system. Didn’t you tell me she was safer there than the cave she’d been buried in?”
“I know, I know. All of that is true, I thought. My Dobermans were drugged and the alarm system is clearly not unbeatable. I do not need more questions, Rayne. I need answers, and I need my ancestor returning to me.”
Rayne scrolled through the newsfeed of la Repubblica but there was no mention of a high-profile burglary. “It’s not been reported to the police?”
Isabella scoffed. “Of course not.”
“Was anything else taken?” Rayne asked, though there was little she could do. Her area was retrieving the artifacts from places that had long been abandoned. And she had zero experience of one of her contracts being stolen once in situ with its proud new owner. Isabella’s ostentatious mansion could have been targeted by high-end thieves who had no idea Zenobia was there.
“Everything else is as it should be.”
“Have you hosted any parties recently? Any new friends?”
“Parties, yes. New friends, no. And she was in a part of the house that remains locked when we’re hosting, unless the guests are those kinds of associates.”
It had to be one of Isabella’s rich friends, and she simply hadn’t considered that she might be betrayed by one of her own. Only Rayne, her team, and the shipping company had the address they’d shipped the tomb to. And the freight company specialized in moving black market antiquities. Revealing the destination to anyone wasn’t worth the risk to their reputation.
“Are you there, Rayne? Rayne?”
“I’m here. I’m thinking. You insured via Nigracatus as I advised, didn’t you?”
“Of course. That’s why it’s taken me some time before I called you. They came immediately and wouldn’t let me speak to anyone while they,” she huffed, “while they did whatever it is they do. Fingerprints and such. They were particularly rude considering how much I paid for their assurance.”
Nigracatus didn’t insure items; they assured you that they’d locate and return them. They had a ninety-five percent success rate, and it was best not to ask what fate befell the thieves, giving the “original” owner plausible deniability if anything were to be traced back to them.
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Series
Series name A Chase Stinsen Adventure
Note, book 1 was released as Uncharted but has been reworked and released as The Golden Trinity
The Golden Trinity
The Copper Scroll
Bits and Bobs
- ISBN number: 9798711238386
- Publisher: Indie author
- Robyn Nyx Online
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