Death Mask A Tale of Vengeance by Nora Delzelle

​    Writing and publishing a book is an admirable accomplishment. It’s also one that’s been made increasingly easy in these days of digital publishing, meaning almost anyone can do it. When, the thing is, of course, no everyone should. Or they should as a vanity project, but the readers must go in with expectations adjusted accordingly.
    This seems to be the case here. The author has obviously put a lot of work into crafting this tale to reflect her interests (good ones, mythology, ancient past, etc.)  and her talent and the latter just isn’t quite there. This book is actually a really good example of a decent if not original idea executed with a flat, bland write by numbers approach.
     It practically screams amateurish debut…the stilted dialogue, the carboard cutouts of characters, the cheaply rendered romantic entanglements.  At its very best, it’s as generic as the cover. Otherwise, it’s just a pure waste of time. Not that much time, but still…time. And the author plans to continue with this too, serializing it, which is just…
     The basic plot here is this…a 24 year old woman buys an ancient Egyptian mask off the internet and finds herself enmeshed in a historically fraught conspiracy and an ongoing battle of forces greater then herself.  Through assistance of her devoted potential love interest and extended, extensive dream sequences, she must sort it all out and you know she will, because sequel.
     So essentially this is like Ancient Aliens, The Mask and maybe The Mummy getting together  and producing a malnourished deformed offspring that should have probably been aborted, because despite the individual and very different awesomeness of the parent properties, some things just shouldn’t breed.
     Throughout the book the main protagonist is described several times as unoriginal and not very bright. Well, given the quality of narrative here, it probably wasn’t an intentional sign of self awareness but there, a perfect description for this book. It isn’t the worst thing out there and, to its credit, well edited, it’s just a bland dud.
     It has managed to gather some really good reviews though, so my opinion is definitely in the minority here.  Make your own choices. You will, anyway. Thanks Netgalley.