Customer Reviews
Sub standard - By: Faerie, 17 Oct 2008 
I found this book extremely disappointing on many levels. Not least the ending!
Having read & loved "Lady of Hay" & "Child of the Phoenix" I decided to revisit this author & with a recent trip along the Nile I opted for "Whispers in the Sand" to reacquaint myself. What a let down.
The only redeeming feature of this book was that it relived many of my own personal experiences - excluding the magical talisman & ghosts, naturallly.
The characters were flimsy, particularly the main character Anna. I found myself commenting aloud at her unbelievable reactions to things & complete lame persona. I appreciate that the author laid down the foundations for a woman with low self esteem & emotional issues but God, she was pathetic.
In fact the most credible part of the book (yes I am well aware it is fiction) was the sub plot & subsequent magical intervention of the ghost like protagonists from Ancient Egypt.
I plugged away, hoping that there would be a catalystic & conclusive finale.....but no to give me a sense of completion or resolution...or something. Sadly, not.
On a mundane note, the constant descriptions of what Anna was wearing was irrelevant & off putting. Considering she was a woman in modern day, in her thirties, regardless of when the book was written, I couldn't help but think the editor must be a mature or middle aged woman who wore cheesecloth herself. Who wears that?
In summary, if you are a fan I suggest you give this one a miss. If you are new to Erskine, read her earlier work.
A brilliant book...until the ending...or lack of - By: A. Deighan, 07 Feb 2007 Never having read a Erskine novel before I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. The detail on Egypt was interesting & linked in well with the story, & the two stories of Anna & Louisa worked well. However, this has got to be the worst ending of any book I have ever read. I had read 500 pages wondering how they would finallly deal with the priests, for what, for it to be left to my imagination..what a cop out! The characters were hurriedly finished off or killed off with no explanation of their motives or actions. If the author could not think of an ending for the book she should not have started it.
An OK read about Egypt but not all that gripping - By: Helen Hancox, 12 Oct 2006 
This is the first book by Barbara Erskine that I've read, & this one was as an audiobook (17 hours) rather than a paperback, which can make the experience different.
Overalll I was interested enough to keep reading, the setting of the book in Egypt today & of 100 years ago (through the two narrators, Anna & her great great grandmother Louisa) was very well written & it was easy to get lost into the world of Egypt whilst listening.
Anna, the modern-day heroine, is on an Egyptian cruise & takes Louisa's diary with her, which she has not previously read, along with the scent bottle that has been passed down her family from Louisa. The story of Anna unfolds at the same time as Louisa's - Anna reads Louisa's impressions of the places she visited in Egypt whilst going there herself. I enjoyed the contrast between the far less touristy Egypt of Louisa's visit in the mid 1800s, especiallly as this was before the building of the Aswan dam & subsequent moving & changing of many of the sites for Anna's visit.
For me, however, the supernatural element of the story didn't work very well. Louisa was given the Egyptian scent bottle by her Egyptian guide Hassan as a gift - the bottle turns out to be ancient & to be a relic that is haunted by two priests who killed each other within a temple 3000 years before. These priests are trying to come back to life & their essences are fixed around the bottle. They tend to appear & disappear again with regularity, giving Anna some spooky moments, but there doesn't seem to be a great deal of reason for the choices of when they appear.
There are paralllel love interests in the story, although Anna's two beaux seem rather irritating initiallly. In fact, Andy, one of these men, is incredibly annoying & patronising & I found it almost incomprehensible that Anna continued to talk to him as the cruise went on. It also seemed rather amazingly convenient that another person on Anna's tour happens to have experience in Isis worship & has a mini Isis altar, as well as incense, with her on the tour. How unlikely is that!
Some people have complained that the story didn't properly end but I thought this ending worked well. You don't know what's going to happen in the future & it continued the sense of mystery.
Overalll I did enjoy the book but I think I found it rather slow & turgid in places & the central theme of the book, the priests & the bottle, got a bit repetitious. Worth a read but not something to grip you from start to finish.
Whispers in the Sand - By: Georgie, 18 Jul 2006 
Always a fan of anything to do with Egypt, I loved the mystery of this novel. I felt I was in Egypt as part of the cruise & kep looking behind me for the spectars. Good plot, scary at times, especiallly when the lights went out each night. Good holiday read but then I am an avid Barbara Erskine fan.
Compelling, yet highly disappointing - By: Morgil, 07 Jul 2004 I must say I immensely enjoyed reading this book. It was a lovely holiday read full of mystery, romance, ancient (and not so ancient) history, & above alll, full of Egypt!
The plot is quite original, & I absolutely loved the magical bits! They're most convincing & breath-taking... I reallly couldn't put this book down while I was reading it.
The ending, however, was extremely disappointing. The author doesn't solve the plot at alll, she only complicates the situation & leaves it as it is right there. So the reader can but guess about what's to happen. Quite inappropriate in my opinion.
My final thought would be: Read this book if you reallly reallly love Ancient Egypt, but don't expect a satisfying ending.
