Look, I'll be honest with you. I went into this one with some literary snobbery fully intact. Clive Cussler? Thomas Perry? This isn't exactly Umberto Eco territory. My students would probably call this "beach read energy" - and they wouldn't be wrong. But here's the thing: sometimes you need a book that moves. And Tombs moves.
When the Pulp Actually Works
I've been teaching for two decades, which means I've spent roughly 7,300 hours explaining why Hemingway's sparse prose is genius while secretly craving something with a little more... velocity. Tombs delivers that in spades. Sam and Remi Fargo are essentially Indiana Jones if he'd married his equal and they both had trust funds. The premise - hunting for Attila the Hun's lost tomb and the fortune buried with him - sounds like something my sophomore students would pitch for a creative writing assignment. (Don't tell them I said that.)
But here's where I have to eat my words a bit. Perry and Cussler did their homework. The historical details about Attila, the burial practices, the geographic trail across Europe - it's genuinely educational. I found myself pausing my grading (okay, I was already procrastinating) to look up whether the five-tomb theory has any scholarly basis. It doesn't, really, but the authors weave enough real history into the fiction that you almost believe it could.
The villains are delightfully over-the-top. A Russian businessman, a Hungarian who claims direct descent from Attila himself, bumbling amateur treasure hunters - it's like a greatest hits of adventure novel antagonists. Subtle? No. Fun? Absolutely.
Scott Brick Doing What Scott Brick Does Best
I've listened to Scott Brick across probably a dozen books at this point, and there's a reason publishers keep hiring him for this genre. His voice has this rich, almost cinematic quality that makes action sequences feel like you're watching a film rather than listening to prose. The chase scenes, the confrontations, the moments of discovery - Brick knows exactly when to accelerate and when to let a scene breathe.
What impressed me most was his character differentiation. The Fargos sound like a married couple who actually like each other - there's warmth there, a playfulness in the dialogue that Brick captures without making it saccharine. The Russian villain gets this slight coldness, not a cartoonish accent, just a tonal shift that signals menace. It's subtle work, and I appreciate subtlety even in pulp.
I listened to most of this while walking the lakefront with Denise, and she kept asking why I was grinning. Hard to explain that I was enjoying a treasure hunt novel more than I'd enjoyed some of the "serious" literature I've assigned this semester. (My students would have a field day with that admission.)
The Pace That Kept Me Walking Extra Miles
At 11 hours and change, Tombs is a commitment, but it never felt like one. The pacing is relentless in the best way - just when you think they've solved one puzzle, another layer reveals itself. I found myself taking longer walks just to get to the next revelation. Denise thinks I'm getting healthier. Really, I just wanted to know what was in the next tomb.
That said, if you're looking for deep character development or moral complexity, this isn't it. The Fargos are competent, wealthy, attractive, and good at everything. It's aspirational fiction, not literary fiction. And honestly? That's fine. Not every book needs to be Middlemarch. Though Big Little Lies manages to be both entertaining and substantive in ways that surprise me every time I revisit it.
Professor's Honest Recommendation
Would I assign this to my students? No. But would I recommend it to a colleague who needs something engaging for their commute? In a heartbeat. This is comfort food for the ears - well-crafted, professionally produced, and performed by a narrator who understands that adventure fiction is its own kind of art.
The production quality is pristine. Clean audio, no weird background noise, just Brick's voice and your imagination doing the work. Worth pausing the faculty meeting for. (Principal Martinez, I was definitely listening to your budget presentation that day. I wasn't.)
Who should listen: If you loved the Dirk Pitt novels or you're a fan of James Rollins, this is your next listen. Who should skip: If you need your fiction to interrogate the human condition, look elsewhere. But sometimes you just need a story where the good guys chase treasure across Europe while outsmarting villains. Tombs delivers exactly that, and it delivers it well.
