First published 2008
Vicky Bliss faces her worst nightmare when someone steals King Tut's mummy and all evidence points to John Tregarth, her longtime lover and notorious art thief. John insists he's innocent and vows to find the real culprit, but Vicky's faith wavers. Her boss Anton Z. Schmidt, Munich Museum director and Europe's finest swordsman, bankrolls their pursuit from London to Munich to Cairo to protect his own reputation. The investigation draws in Egyptian officials, wealthy cousin Ashraf and his poorer relative Feisel, plus mummy expert Saida. Bodies start dropping when an Arab security guard turns up dead, followed by a female middleman. Severed hands arrive with threatening notes, one from the dead woman and another from Tut himself, demanding millions in ransom. As killers and kidnappers close in, Vicky must decide whether to trust the man she loves or accept that he's betrayed everything she believes in.
Genres: romance, adventure, suspense, mystery, crime, archaeology
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: London, Munich, Cairo, Egypt
Period: 20th-century
324 pages · Hardcover · Harper Collins