Luxor, Egypt, in 1904, is the setting for the latest Lady Emily Ashton Mystery. The format is familiar – essentially a country house mystery, but the house is a mansion beside the Nile. A group of cheerful guests has joined the host for a few weeks to escape the British winter. SECRETS OF THE NILE will be revealed.
This January, Lord Bertram Deeley has invited Ann Hargreaves, her son Colin, who is a Crown agent, and his wife, Lady Emily Ashton. Colin has a daughter, Katarina von Lange, whose mother was an Austrian countess. Now a proper little madam, she accompanies the adults, unsure whether to be cranky or awed. They travel on their hired sailing boat while the other guests use a motor barge to reach the residence.
Mr Tristan McLeod, an archaeologist, is one of the larger party. The others include Lady Wilona Bestwick and her companion, Miss Pandora Evans; Mr Caspian Troubridge, Mr Inigo Granard and his wife Adelaide, and the respectable Dr Oliver Rockley. The group enjoys a sumptuous English-style banquet and speeches. Unexpectedly, the host drops dead, apparently poisoned. Will anyone else fall ill, or was he targeted? The local Egyptian police are summoned, and they declare that it must have been the work of a disgruntled servant who has gone missing. Colin and Lady Emily are sure the police don’t really wish to investigate, as they need foreign income.
In between episodes of sightseeing and investigation, we are treated to a look at the past of this region. The nearby village of Pa Demi was the home of those artisans constructing the pyramids. We meet a female sculptor named Meryt, her painter brother and the rest of their family.
Anyone who would enjoy a Nile cruise either in reality or on the page will have a good time with SECRETS OF THE NILE by Tasha Alexander. The warm, dry air and impressive antiquities make a wonderful backdrop to this involved story of motives, personalities and detection.
In Secrets of the Nile, Lady Emily and her husband, Colin Hargreaves, have joined his formidable mother on a holiday to visit the exotic treasures of Egypt. Their host, Lord Bertram Deeley, is a renowned amateur British collector of antiquities, who has invited his closest friends on a lavish cruise up the Nile to his home at Luxor. But on the first night of their journey, he suddenly collapses after offering a welcome toast, a victim of the lethal poison cyanide. Who amongst this group of his nearest and dearest would want to kill their generous host?
Emily and Colin’s investigation soon reveals that even his closest friends had reasons to want him dead: was it the archeologist whose dig Deeley was poised to fund until he suddenly withdrew support? The powerful politician whose career Deeley had secretly destroyed? The dyspeptic aristocratic English spinster whose hired travelling companion seems determined to protect her employer? Or could it be Mrs. Hargreaves herself, who may have spurned the advances of Lord Deeley when they were both younger?
A key clue may lie with several ancient ushabtis, exquisite three-thousand-year-old sculptures that played a role in a hidden story from the time of Ancient Egypt, one of a sister’s unshakeable loyalty to her brother, a tale of betrayal and revenge. In an unforgettable finale, Emily and Colin gather their fellow travelers together to unmask a killer whose motive is as shocking as it is brilliant.
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