Julia Eccleshare's comment:
This is an excellent, fast-paced adventure fusing past and present in a swift moving plot which tells how a sixteen year old contemporary hacker gets involved in the story of a daring gold robbery from an ancient temple in Timbuktu. Contemporary Danny is not only quick with computers he is also quick on his feet and his code breaking is only successful because he is able to keep one step ahead of his pursuers as they chase him from London to Africa in the hope of getting to the gold first.

Lovereading comment:
A brilliant treasure hunt from London to sub-Saharan Africa involving a boy pitted against ruthless adversaries who are prepared to stop at nothing to find the long lost Timbuktu gold. Adrenalin-fuelled, this is definitely a book for even the most reluctant boy. It's fast-moving and will definitely grab any reader by the throat and whisk them through it, leaving a great feeling at the end. The best thing though about Stephen’s writing is that you really feel a part of the boy protagonist as he runs headlong through the book. This is almost certainly because the author, although English, lives a nomadic life in West Africa among the herders and speaks their language. For younger readers try his series of novels featuring the adventurer Sophie, again set in Africa.

Dragonfly review:
Stephen Davies obviously researched everything from the culture of Mali to the hacking; 'Hacking Timbuktu' was full of facts - you never felt like anything was missed out because the author hadn't researched something. You could imagine everything like a film it was so vividly described...It will appeal to both sexes (mostly boys, though) and is just plain awesome.