The plot would do nicely for a sensational novel, but it is all based on surmise. [loc. 298]
The Great War is over, and the extended Emerson family -- now including Amelia and Emerson's grandchildren, as well as a number of friends and associates -- return to Egypt to excavate at Luxor. Unfortunately they are plagued by accidents and misfortune, but that's surely coincidence, isn't it?
An Italian conservation expert goes missing. There are rumours of a mysterious apparition, and Ramses has an odd encounter with a 'goddess' in a Cairo tenement: some of Cyrus Vandergelt's precious discoveries go missing, and Amelia receives a cryptic warning, in a dream, from Abdullah. 'Watch over the children,' he advises: but which children?
It really is a complicated plot, with aliases and deceptions and disguises, and the denouement is as dramatic as anything that's befallen the family before. (The focus in this novel is much more on the family than on the archaeology.) All's well in the end though, and an ancient mystery (all right, not that ancient: Sethos' true name) is revealed. Also, a tantalising conclusion ...
I am saving the remaining two (I think) novels in the series for when I need more comfort reading. Hopefully not too soon!
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