bookshelf

THE ANUBIS SLAYINGS

Name: THE ANUBIS SLAYINGS
Author: P.C. Doherty
ISBN: 0-312-27658-3

A STORY OF INTRIGUE AND MURDER SET IN ANCIENT EGYPT

by P.C. Doherty ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 11, 2001

Choked with bloody killings, confrontations, and betrayals, the story is gripping enough for casual visitors, but will be...

bookshelf

The third of prolific Doherty’s Egyptian historicals (The Horus Killings, 1999, etc.) is set in 1479 b.c., a year after the death of the Pharaoh Thutmosis has left as ruler his daughter Hatusu, who has begun her reign auspiciously by winning a great victory over the Mittani to the north. Just below her are Senenmut, her Grand Vizier and rumored lover, and Amerotke of Thebes, her Chief Judge, who plays a much more active role than his title would suggest. Besides presiding over his court, Amerotke must deal with such other matters as a major theft from the Temple of Anubis in Thebes. The sacred amethyst called the Glory of Anubis has been stolen from the Temple and its guardian Nemrath has been found stabbed to death in the still-locked chamber where the jewel was kept, even though the priest Khety and the priestess Ita, who were on guard, heard nothing amiss. Another mystifying death is that of the traveler Sinuhe. His journal and maps charting the dangers in areas imperial Egypt has an eye on have disappeared. In addition, Master locksmith Belet and his wife Seli, close friends of the dwarf Shufoy, Amerotke’s faithful servant, have disappeared as well. To complicate matters, spies are everywhere. The death and dishonor they sow will climax in the ravaging of the tomb of Thutmosis and the dire penalties that follow.

Choked with bloody killings, confrontations, and betrayals, the story is gripping enough for casual visitors, but will be most appreciated by those with a special interest in the period.

Pub Date: June 11, 2001

ISBN: 0-312-27658-3

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Minotaur

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2001

Categories:

MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE

- BOOK REVIEW
THE MYSTERIUM
by P.C. Doherty

- BOOK REVIEW
THE TEMPLAR MAGICIAN
by P.C. Doherty

- BOOK REVIEW
NIGHTSHADE
by P.C. Doherty

bookshelf

A CONSPIRACY OF BONES

by Kathy Reichs ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2020

Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.

bookshelf

Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.

A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice (The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”

Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.

Pub Date: March 17, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020

Categories:

- BOOK REVIEW
FIRE AND BONES
by Kathy Reichs

- BOOK REVIEW
COLD, COLD BONES
by Kathy Reichs

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BONE CODE
by Kathy Reichs

bookshelf

BADLANDS

by C.J. Box ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 28, 2015

A suspenseful, professional-grade north country procedural whose heroine, a deft mix of compassion and attitude, would be...

bookshelf

Box takes another break from his highly successful Joe Pickett series (Stone Cold, 2014, etc.) for a stand-alone about a police detective, a developmentally delayed boy, and a package everyone in North Dakota wants to grab.

Cassandra Dewell can’t leave Montana’s Lewis and Clark County fast enough for her new job as chief investigator for Jon Kirkbride, sheriff of Bakken County. She leaves behind no memories worth keeping: her husband is dead, her boss has made no bones about disliking her, and she’s looking forward to new responsibilities and the higher salary underwritten by North Dakota’s sudden oil boom. But Bakken County has its own issues. For one thing, it’s cold—a whole lot colder than the coldest weather Cassie’s ever imagined. For another, the job she turns out to have been hired for—leading an investigation her new boss doesn’t feel he can entrust to his own force—makes her queasy. The biggest problem, though, is one she doesn’t know about until it slaps her in the face. A fatal car accident that was anything but accidental has jarred loose a stash of methamphetamines and cash that’s become the center of a battle between the Sons of Freedom, Bakken County’s traditional drug sellers, and MS-13, the Salvadorian upstarts who are muscling in on their territory. It’s a setup that leaves scant room for law enforcement officers or for Kyle Westergaard, the 12-year-old paperboy damaged since birth by fetal alcohol syndrome, who’s walked away from the wreck with a prize all too many people would kill for.

A suspenseful, professional-grade north country procedural whose heroine, a deft mix of compassion and attitude, would be welcome to return and tie up the gaping loose end Box leaves. The unrelenting cold makes this the perfect beach read.