Joan Hess’s 17th Claire Malloy mystery, Mummy Dearest, pays tribute to the Amelia Peabody novels of the celebrated mystery writer Elizabeth Peters, to whom the book is dedicated.
Claire Malloy – widowed mother of a teenage daughter and a bookseller in Farberville, Arkansas – has finally married town police Lt. Peter Rosen.
They are on their honeymoon in Luxor, Egypt, accompanied by her daughter Caron and Inez, Caron's best friend and frequent partner in (mis)adventure.
The girls claim they’re being followed by a sinister Arab with a scar, and then a young American woman is kidnapped and an archeological expedition is beset by murderous mishaps.
Enter one Lady Amelia Peabody Emerson, reputed to be the descendant of famous English archeologists!
Publishers Weekly says “Manipulating everything with a practiced hand, Hess concludes the story in a manner worthy of Hercule Poirot in the classic Death on the Nile.”
Joan Hess is the author of both the Claire Malloy and the Maggody mystery series.
Fans of P.C. Doherty’s Amerotke, Chief Judge of the Halls of Two Truths mysteries which actually take place in ancient Egypt, in the 1400s – B.C., that is – are enjoying the 6th title in the series, The Poisoner of Ptah, which received a starred review from PW.
Amerotke enters the twilight world of glorious Thebes where life can be so rich and yet death so swift and brutal when three prominent Egyptian scribes are poisoned.
PW says “Doherty, the author of a number of other historical series, manages to include an impossible crime among the puzzles the sage and insightful judge must solve.”
Hope that all of you mummies out there enjoy your special day on Sunday!