I just finished up a really good book called Sandstorm by James Rollins. It's a strange supernatural, scientific, spy, adventure. It's a little bit of everything all rolled up into one. There are a quite a few characters that you will be introduced to in this story.

Painter Crowe is a member of a high level top secret organization. He is special forces trained, and highly intelligent. Then there is Dr. Safia Al-Maaz, she is a curator of the Arabian wing of a British Museum in the middle of Downtown London. Her best friend, Lady Kensington, who is the sponsor of the gallery. Then for good measure add Omaha Dunn, the former love interest of Safia Al-Maaz. He is an archaeologist/treasure seeker. Along with his younger brother Danny, they will eventually meet up with the rest of this unusual group to search for the secrets to the greatest secret in Central Arabia.

The hidden city of Ubar is the prize they all seek. It holds secrets to the past as well as possibly a power source for the future. The problem (one of many) is that a mega storm is headed into the region and that coupled with a massive storm coming in from the sea, are on a head on collision course. Yep you guessed it, the storms should meet somewhere in the middle of their search area. There are lots of twists and turns in this book, and a lot of internal conflict. You will find that everybody has their own reasons for wanting to find the hidden city, and some of them might be a little less than Honorable.

The book had tons of action and some really cool twists and turns. If you like a few surprises, along with some actual truth to go along with your fiction, you will definitely enjoy this book.
I can't really say if this would be a fast read, as I was forced to put it down a couple of times (real life got in my way). But it was easy to get right back into the story even after setting it down.
At 569 pages (paperback), it wasn't all that long. It surely didn't feel like that it was that long, but that was because the book kept pulling me back in.

Overall I would definitely suggest you get a copy of this book. It's a good story, with some great characters, and it gives you a little bit of a history lesson, mixed in with some science and just good plain imagination.