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At last, Ramses is old enough to
survive Egypt, but will Egypt be able to survive Ramses?
Taking John the footman to watch over him, may not be enough.
When the family checks in at
Shepheard's in Cairo, they begin to hear rumors of "The
Master", a dark figure who has taken control of the local
antiquities market. Emerson has a strong objection to the sale of
antiquities and tries to ignore the dealers, when
possible.
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But Amelia takes
a less adamant view and seeks to reform them, so she begins
nosing around the suk with Ramses in tow. And the
consequences are fatal for one of the antiquities
dealers.
Emerson hastily moves the
family out of town to the new dig site to avoid further
distractions.
The dig site is a
disappointment to Amelia. |
Emerson, as is his habit, has waited
until the last minute to seek a firman for a dig site. Amelia has a
love of pyramids, and he tries to soften the blow of his assigned
site by pointing out that the pile of rubble once was a pyramid, and
it might have an underground structure that Amelia can crawl around
in to her heart's content.
Unfortunately, the site is near the
magnificent pyramids of Dashur, and Amelia and Ramses find it
difficult to keep their minds on the boring Roman period cemetery
that Emerson insists on digging first. Amelia valiantly
catalogues and stores the Roman mummy cases and doesn't even notice
when an extra one appears in the storeroom. The attempt on her life
and the ructions at the local village are harder to ignore.
And Ramses has taken to going off on his own and
"digging".
Amelia becomes intrigued by the
rumors of "The Master Criminal" and continues to
pursue her own little
sideline in inquiries, which seem to have stirred up a hornet's
nest. The compound is attacked and Amelia goes "berserk"
defending Ramses from the attackers who seem to believe that Ramses has something worth stealing.
Is it all about the Mummy Case
which seems to be the center of all the action, being stolen, stored surreptitiously
and stolen again?
Finally, the thieves become
desperate, and Amelia and Emerson are
abducted and dumped deep inside a pyramid. And that, gentle reader
is as far as I am taking you in this synopsis....
Peters weaves the personalities of
the famous archaeologists of the time and details of actual discoveries into the story,
leaving the reader feeling that they, too, have been to Egypt and
had an adventure.
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