Paul Sussman Books In Order

Publication Order of Yusuf Khalifa Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Paul Sussman is an English author of fiction, mainly thriller novels. He was born Paul Nicholas Sussman on July 11, 1966 in Beaconsfield. The Independent called his books the intelligent reader’s answer to The Da Vinci Code. He was a former field archaeologist and journalist. When he worked as a journalist, he wrote “In the News”, a satirical column that was published in The Big Issue. He won a Columnist of the Year Award while there from the Periodical Publishers Association.

He was the only son of Stanley and Sue Sussman. His father was a sales manager working for a local textile manufacturer and his mother worked as a psychoanalyst, although she used to be an actress. The family moved to northwest London after living for a few years in Hampstead, leaving for the new area of Northwood.

Paul went to Merchant Taylors’ School and graduated from St. John’s College in Cambridge. There he won a boxing blue and a Joseph Larmor Award. He also wrote for The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Evening Standard, The Spectator, Cosmopolitan, and online news source CNN.com.

Sussman is also the author of several international best selling books. When he worked as an archaeologist, he specialized in Egypt as a focus. He discovered pharaonic jewelry in the Valley of the Kings in Tomb KV56 as part of his work in the Amarna Royal Tombs Project. It was the only type of jewelry of that sort to have been found since 1922 when King Tut was discovered. His novels are frequently set in Egypt. They have been translated into 33 languages.

He first became a published author with the publication of his book Death by Spaghetti, a non-fiction book that came out in 1996. His first novel was published in 2002 and was titled The Lost Army of Cambyses. It is the first book in the Yusuf Khalifa trilogy. He is also the author of the 2014 novel titled The Final Testimony of Raphael Ignatius Phoenix.

Paul Sussman passed away suddenly from a ruptured aneurysm on May 31, 2012, in London. He left behind his wife and his two sons.

In the first novel of the Yusuf Khalifa series, we are in the era of Egypt. The lost Army of Cambyses starts off in the year 523 B.C. when the Persian pharaoh Cambyses sends his army out. They march across the western desert of Egypt for the purpose of destroying the oracle at Siwa. But they are not to make it there because the army was lost forever on their way there while thought to have been overwhelmed by the onset of a sudden sandstorm. The legend is that the army was lost somewhere in the Great Dune Sea, never having achieved their mission.

But just barely over two millennia later, strange things start occurring. It starts when a corpse washes up on the Nile at Luxor’s banks, mutilated and seemingly come from nowhere. Shortly after that, a dealer in antiques is murdered in a horrible way in Cairo. Not only that, but an English archaeologist is discovered deceased in the very old necropolis of Saqqara. Each incident is unique, but could they possibly be related?

Inspector Yusuf Khalifa is the main character in this novel. He works for the Luxor Police, and Khalifa is suspicious of the events. Matching his sense of distrust of the whole situation is the daughter of the archaeologist, Tara Mullray. As they are pulled into a world of violence, intrigue, and betrayal, there is also the matter of the legends of a lost tomb and a strange hieroglyphic fragment. Khalifa and Tara start off looking for answers to the murder, but perhaps they are in more danger than they think.

Tara and Yusuf must deal with more than just the present; they are plagued with ghosts from the past too. Whenever they get tired of those, they also have plenty of enemies and obstacles in their way to conquer. As they get closer to the desert that swallowed up the army of Cambyses so many years ago and go further into the savage heart of the desert, they may just stumble upon an answer to an ancient mystery that has gone unanswered for a long time.

Will Tara and Yusuf Khalifa be able to put the pieces together? Can they figure out who murdered the archaeologist and figure out what’s going on? Pick up this adrenaline-pumping debut novel to find out!

The second book in the Yusuf Khalifa series is called The Last Secret of the Temple. It was published in 2005. Inspector Yusuf Khalifa is back in this exciting roller coaster sequel to the first book, and he has another case to solve. Hotel owner Piet Jansen is up there in years, and everyone is shocked when his body is found in the middle of some ruins by the west bank of the Nile, an archaeological site called Malqata that is rarely visited.

Khalifa thinks that the case is very straightforward and expects it to be fairly open and shut. However, the more details and information that he learns about Jansen, the more that he finds the case strange. Khalifa is uneasy because the murder is reminding him of another case that he came across earlier. It was the death of an Israeli woman at Karnak some years ago. He had always thought that they had convicted the wrong man for that case– could the two be connected?

The case starts to bother Khalifa more as he thinks about it. Soon this basic investigation grows complicated. Against the wishes of his superiors and despite his own worries about working with the Israelis, he decides to open the case once more. To tackle this case, he teams up with a detective from Jerusalem named Arieh Ben Roi.

Meanwhile, Eva Town is a journalist. When she gets a letter from an anonymous writer that wants her help, she doesn’t know what to do. She recently interviewed the Palestinian extremist leader that the author wants her help now to contact. If she will get them in touch with The Veiled One, as Al-Mulassam is called, then they promise to give her a huge story that will make her career.

Eva decides to follow up on the letter. Meanwhile, Khalifa and his partner Ben Roi are working to investigate the case. Their advances take them ever-closer to the truth amidst a backdrop of violence between Palestinians and Israelis that it seems will only get worse. With intrigue around the corner and duplicity around the next and an ancient artifact that could start a new war in the Middle East, Ben Roi and Khalifa have their work cut out for them. To see how the story ends, pick up this heart-pounding thriller!