Ron K. (WhidbeyIslander) - , reviewed on 9/13/2022 + 693 more book reviews

Not really 254 pages long, which is one of the good things about this book. (Lots of blank pages scattered throughout and most of the dialogue has blank lines inserted between sentences.)
The author throws too many characters at you within the first few pages (but happily, he also provides one of those Cast of Character lists in the front.)

The narrator is a young man smitten with the incredibly beautiful daughter of the expedition's leader (always a tiresome trope). The murder isn't discovered until about a third of the way in, and is actually treated like a subplot as the visiting official (looking for a criminal in the area, which is like a plot steal from The Hound of the Baskervilles) looks into the killing. The addition of G.K. Chesterton is silly and his posturing and pompous views are not welcome. Since there is discussion about the layout of the dig and one of the members draws intricate diagrams of the chamber, maybe a copy could have been provided.

There are skippable passages when the (two!) religious members of the group spout off, as are descriptions of walking in the sands. The whole thing is sort of amateurish and not recommended as a mystery, a look into Egyptian archeology or anything else really. Dedicated to John Dickson Carr, the author used Fell as the name of a major character as well as the name âColonel Race,â although this book never approaches the level of either Carr or Christie (or for that matter Chesterton.) There is also an episode of an attack on a member of the group that is never explained or referred to again.

Chesterton solves the riddle of the crime and his explanation at the end prompted me to add one star to my rating -- almost taken away because he then pontificates for two pages about death in general. (Nice cover, though.)

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