‘The Pyramid Murders’ by Fiona Veitch Smith

Published by Embla Books,
13th June 2024.
ISBN 978-1-47141592-9 (PB)

This is the third of Fiona Veitch Smith’s mysteries which feature Miss Clara Vale. Clara is intent on making a success of the detective agency she has inherited from her uncle despite the prejudice and patronising attitudes she has to contend with as a fiercely independent woman making her own way in the world in 1930.

Clara attends a launch party being held at the Handcock Museum in Newcastle to mark a new exhibition of Egyptian artifacts donated to the museum in his will by Clara’s uncle. The highlight of the evening is the opening of a sarcophagus of Amentukah on loan from the British Museum. Later that night, someone breaks into the museum. The mummy is thrown on the floor to reveal a collection of valuable Egyptian jewelled artifacts. The would-be thief is disturbed and gets away. The precious remains have never been documented but Dr Daphnie Coleman, the museum’s curator, believes they were looted by grave robbers. Who hid them there?

There is a further mystery. Dr Colman confides to Clara that the mummy cannot be that of Amentukah. The two women investigate and discover that not only is the mummy that of a woman, but it also cannot be more than a few years old.

Daphne asks Clara to take the jewels to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Clara and her resourceful assistant, Bella, set off on a voyage aboard a luxury liner for a two-week cruise bound for Cairo. It’s a journey fraught with danger that will put both their lives at risk.    

Events unfold at breakneck speed as the action moves from Newcastle to Cairo and the questions keep coming via a series of twists and turns that make the book impossible to put down. Each location from the musty atmosphere of the Handcock Museum, the luxury of the first-class section of the RMS Olympic, the heart-in-mouth plane journey to Egypt’s contrasting city and desert environments is vividly drawn. The reader can only marvel at the vast amount of research it must have taken to be able to re-create so credibly. As events unfold, suspicion falls on each of the archaeologists who are returning to Egypt. Appearances can be deceptive. Can Clara trust anyone back home or in Egypt?

Each of the large cast of characters is well-drawn. My favourite is Bella, Clara’s straight-talking assistant whose working-class background gives her access to areas where Clara cannot venture.

An excellent read that I can thoroughly recommend. 
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Reviewer: Judith Cranswick  

Fiona Veitch Smith is the author of the Poppy Denby Investigates novels, Golden Age-style murder mysteries set in the 1920s (Lion Fiction). The first book, The Jazz Files, was shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger, while subsequent books have been shortlisted for the Foreword Review Mystery Novel of the Year and the People’s Book Prize. Book 5, The Art Fiasco, is out now. Fiona lives with her husband and teenage daughter in Newcastle upon Tyne. She works part time for the Crime Writers' Association and is the Deputy Editor of Red Herrings magazine.  

www.poppydenby.com

Judith Cranswick was born and brought up in Norwich. Apart from writing, Judith’s great passions are travel and history. Both have influenced her two series of mystery novels. Tour Manager, Fiona Mason takes coach parties throughout Europe, and historian Aunt Jessica is the guest lecturer accompanying tour groups visiting more exotic destinations aided by her nephew Harry. Her published novels also include several award-winning standalone psychological thrillers. She wrote her first novel (now languishing in the back of a drawer somewhere) when her two children were toddlers, but there was little time for writing when she returned to her teaching career. Now retired, she is able to indulge her love of writing and has begun a life of crime! ‘Writers are told to write what they know about, but I can assure you, I've never committed a murder. I'm an ex-convent school headmistress for goodness sake!’ Her most recent book is Journey To Casablanca  

http://judithcranswick.co.uk/