It is 1893 London on the brink of a new year. Phillip Addison is a volunteer at the British Museum weighing the bodies of Egyptian mummies when he makes an amazing discovery. When he fails to return home, his wife calls upon Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn. Later, they have the sad business to inform her that her husband is dead, and now they are being followed in order to find Addison’s discovery.
I am reading Will Thomas’s Barker & Llewelyn series completely out of order. It wasn't my intention but just how it happened. I read number 12 in the series, and this is number 14. When I reviewed number 12, I said the writing was choppy. It would appear that this issue has been addressed as there was significantly less, to which I am extremely grateful as I could better focus on the plot and not the mechanics.
I found I liked Barker more in this novel than in the previous one I read. Maybe something happened between the two, but it was as if he recognized that he was aloof to his fellow man, and so he allowed Llewelyn to handle more of the interactions. When it came to the humanity portion of the novel, it was prominently dominated by Llewelyn with touches of Barker. The intellect was primarily Barker’s domain, but Llewelyn gave parts of himself. I loved that the novel started with Llewelyn going to the book stalls. A bibliophile after my own heart!
I love Egypt and am fascinated by its history. I would have liked a little more historical information, but again this doesn’t take away from the novel. The mystery is Addison, what happened to him and why. Everything that happened flowed smoothly and made absolute sense.
Overall, I rate this novel 4.5 out of 5 stars.
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