Part of Alexandra Cooper, book 5
First published 2004
Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cooper attends a glittering fundraiser at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The evening celebrates a controversial new exhibit called "A Modern Bestiary," a joint venture between the Met and the American Museum of Natural History that has divided New York's cultural elite. Museum director Pierre Thibodaux interrupts Cooper's evening with an urgent crisis. At a New Jersey loading dock, workers have discovered a shocking substitution. A Twelfth Dynasty mummified princess named Cleopatra has vanished from her stone sarcophagus. In her place lies the body of a modern woman with dark hair and a barrette. Cooper teams up with detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace to investigate. Their search takes them through the corridors of the Metropolitan Museum, north to the medieval collections at the Cloisters, and into the vast halls of the Natural History Museum. Someone has used these temples of culture and learning as a cover for murder. Cooper must navigate the world of priceless artifacts and powerful donors to find a killer who may still be lurking in the shadows of these great institutions.
Genres: american-fiction, adventure, mystery, crime, detective, academic
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, investigation, mystery
Setting: American Museum of Natural History, Cloisters, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Jersey
Period: Twelfth Dynasty
528 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Pocket Star