Ralph Trilipush stands in the Egyptian desert in 1922, watching Howard Carter uncover Tutankhamun's treasures while his own dig crumbles around him. The Oxford-trained Egyptologist has wagered his career and his fiancée's money on finding the tomb of an obscure king, guided only by a fragment of erotic hieroglyphs. His reputation dissolves as quickly as sand through his fingers. Half a world away, an Australian detective begins hunting a killer whose trail spans continents, from the rough streets of Australia to Boston's elegant society parties. The investigation weaves through Oxford's halls, the muddy trenches of World War I, and the chambers of a royal court in chaos. As Trilipush's obsession deepens and the detective closes in on his quarry, their separate worlds spiral toward a collision that will destroy everything both men thought they understood about truth and deception.
Genres: 20th-century, adventure, crime, archaeology, detective, academic
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: deception, obsession, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Australia, Boston, Egypt, Oxford
Period: 1922, World War I
627 pages · Hardcover · RB Large Print