THE writing partnership of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child has been a well-kept secret to British readers ever since their best known novel, Relic, went out of print several years ago.

Fans who enjoyed that book and its sequel had to rely on personal imports to keep up with their ever-improving output. Anyone new to Lincoln Preston should pick up a copy of The Cabinet of Curiosities via Amazon as an excellent introduction.

Although the partnership seems to work very well, both men have taken a break to write their own solo material.

The Codex starts with a bang - a multimillion dollar robbery, a missing billionaire and a tomb filled with incredible treasure - and it never lets up.

Eccentric billionaire Maxwell Broadbent has stripped his home of its art, gemstones and priceless artefacts and disappeared. The only clue left behind for his three sons is a grainy videotape.

The tape contains an astonishing explanation - Broadbent has buried himself and his vast fortune in an ancient tomb, rather like a modern-day Egyptian pharaoh. If the sons want to claim what they believe is rightfully theirs, it's up to them to find the tomb. And the only way they can do that is to work together. As if that isn't hard enough, other parties are interested in the Broadbent inheritance.

Among the paintings, statues, gems and pieces of jewellery is a battered old book - an ancient Mayan codex - that holds the answer to cures for some of the world's deadliest diseases. The contents of the book are potentially explosive and the knowledge it contains would make any company in possession of it billions in new drugs and treatments.

When the book's existence comes to the attention of an ailing multi-national pharmaceuticals corporation CEO Lewis Skiba, he gambles everything - including his company and the lives of Broadbent's three sons - on finding it.

Deftly mixing Indiana Jones with Da Vinci Code science-faction, The Codex is a compulsive page turner from beginning to end. So much, in fact, that I read it through in a single sitting.

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child may have been missing from UK book stores for a long time but I reckon The Codex is set to relaunch this terrific duo in Britain with a bang.