The King's Shadow: Obsession, Betrayal, and the Deadly Quest for The Lost City of Alexandria, Richardson - B-

         This is a story of the transformation of an English soldier into "one of the great archaeologists of the age." In 1827, a private in the army of the East India Company walked out of camp in Agra, India. "He would change he world - and the world would destroy him." James Lewis walked across India, and emerged in Pakistan using the name Charles Masson. He achieved a degree of self-sufficiency by becoming  a storyteller. He read extensively and became fascinated with Alexander the Great. He decided to find the rumored city of Alexandria beneath the Mountains in Afghanistan. He began excavating mounds around Bagram. He found ancient coins, bits of pottery and porcelain with Greek inscriptions, as well as priceless jewels and artifacts from the country's Buddhist era. He needed money to carry on, and petitioned the East India Company. The Company agreed to fund his work. Soon thereafter, the Company engaged him as their intelligence agent in Kabul.  Because of the quality of his work as a spy and an archaeologist, the Company obtained a pardon for him from the King of England. Masson found thousands of coins, including many with a Greek inscription on one side and an unidentifiable one on the reverse. Thus, he discovered the key to the ancient language of Kharoshthi.  The coins depicted an interconnectedness among Greeks, Buddhists, Chinese, Egyptians and Romans. However, in the spring of 1838, the ruler of Kabul expelled the British at the behest of the Russians. In response, the East India Company declared war on Afghanistan. A subaltern in Quetta arrested Masson on suspicion of treason and kept him imprisoned for months. Once he was freed, Masson left his beloved Afghanistan and headed back to India. No one would publish the book he wrote because it was critical of the Company and its invasion. In the fall of 1841, he sailed for London. While he was at sea, the British were kicked out of Afghanistan and unmercifully slaughtered on the way. One single Englishman returned to India. He received neither compensation nor praise at home. He died a decade later. Today, his work has been catalogued and is featured at the British Museum. Well written, but dare I say - pointless.