What I've been reading lately: Treasure Hunts

There's a particular genre that's become enormously lucrative in the wake of  The Da Vinci Code that I like to think of as "Treasure Hunt Adventure". Or, "We must find the Ancient Thing. Why are people trying to kill us?"
 Invariably they feature the hero and his sidekick(s) trotting round a number of locations piecing together clues and bits of McGuffin. In the process they inevitably draw the ire of some shadowy bunch of loons or another. They might want to find it first, they might want to  stop it being found. Either way, the bad guys have resources, a long reach and at least one certified nutjob on the payroll.
 Let's have a look at two I've been reading lately. 

The Tiger Warrior by David Gibbins begins with a group of Roman legionaries escaping from their Parthian captors and heading East along The Silk Road. Centuries later, Marine Archaeologist Jack Howard attempts to discover why an ancestor walked into the mountains of Afghanistan and never came back.
  David Gibbins is not a bad writer. His characters are interesting, when he hits his stride he's good at setting the mood and the historical basis for his books is invariably fascinating.
 The problem is...
 I've read a few of his books and he seems to be aiming at the market sector that likes Clive Cussler but thinks there ought to be less adventure and more Marine Archaeology.
 This is a bit more lively than most but still sees Howard and co strolling from one location to another, the bad guys can't be bothered to show up until close to the end and it was only when I hit the end of the book that I realised I'd just passed the climax without realising. Disappointed is not the word.
 There's the potential for a good book here but Gibbbins doesn't manage to pull it off.

Compare and contrast with:
Matthew Reilly -Seven Ancient Wonders.
  A multinational team race around the world atttempting to retrieve pieces of the Great Pyramid's longlost capstone. Not only will they face puzzles and murderous traps but the armed might of the US Army, the Germans, the French and the Vatican.
 Australian Reilly is not a polished writer. Description is minimal and he's never going to win any literary prizes unless somebody comes out with a "Most amount of Holy Shit crammed into one book." Booker.
 But what you do get is action. Lots and lots of action. Then more action, jawdrop sequences and some particularly nasty men meeting particularly nasty deaths. Reilly relies heavily on keeping the pace so insanely fast that you don't have time to realise how loopy some of this gets and in the process he kicks Realism in the goolies, nicks it's wallet and sprints off giggling.
 I tend to enjoy his books so I had a lot of fun with this one.
  If you fancy reading something that's like Indiana Jones written by a cocaine crazed maniac after a Schwarzenegger marathon, this might appeal.
 If you don't like books where the good guys have a Stealth 747 with gun turrets we're probably not going to get along.