The King's Shadow

 The King's Shadow: Obsession, Betrayal, and the Deadly Quest for the Lost City of Alexandria by Edmund Richardson, 352 pages.

When James Lewis deserted the East India Trading Company's army, he walked into the desert and kept going until he became one of the first westerners to live in Afghanistan for centuries, and so Charles Masson was born. Masson would take on many roles living in Afghanistan: fake holy man, alchemist, political advisor, and unwilling spy. But the role he took on enthusiastically (and many would say obsessively) was archaeologist, as he relentlessly pursued Alexander the Great and the lost city of Alexandria beneath the Mountains.

This was a completely fascinating history, one of those stranger-than-fiction stories that feels to exciting to be true. Richardson does an excellent job focusing the narrative in a way that is both engaging and informative. This book is impeccably researched, and draws heavily on firsthand accounts from disparate sources. Richardson does an excellent job adding context, so that even with no background knowledge the book is easy to follow. Also, in a rare treat for a 19th century archaeologist, Masson himself was a deeply sympathetic figure, which made it very easy to invest in his story. This book reminds me quite a lot of David Grann's The Wager, so fans of that book would almost certainly enjoy this one, but I would also recommend it highly more generally.