Wednesday, September 2, 2020
Sunday, August 9, 2020
Thursday, July 30, 2020
NEW Fiction EXCERPT - "MURDER on the NILE Mystery Cruise".
“Egypt - a real life movie set... the ultimate setting for a mystery. You couldn’t stage this stuff, could you?”
The rich old man waved his be-ringed hand at the panorama of the pyramids on view from his balcony at the Mena House Hotel.
He was Calder Hall, a vastly rich show-biz producer and sponsor of archaeology in Egypt and he had invited Daniel to his presidential suite for a mysterious meeting.
The pyramids looked as impressive as always, Daniel had to agree. But threatening too.
Jagged arrows of stone on the skyline, like mountainous warning symbols.
Hazard triangles.
Daniel sat across from two men at a coffee table. The second man was the rich man’s attorney, Hyman Robbins.
The rich man, Calder Hall, was a shaven-headed octogenarian who put Daniel in mind of the craggy mummy of Pharaoh Seti in the museum. Daniel also noticed the old man’s distinctive walking stick resting against the table, an antique Egyptian style stick with a golden jackal-dog’s head that peered over the table. The dog’s spiky ears were pressed back to smoothen the grip. Calder had suffered an early injury in a sports car accident and now walked with the aid of the mobility stick.
“I see you’ve still got Jack,” Daniel said.
“Jack, my jackal-dog stick.” He smiled. “You remember things, Daniel.”
The walking stick had become a conversation piece when Daniel first met the rich champion of archaeology at a conference, about a year before.
“Isn’t that Khentiamentiu, the early dog god of Abydos? Or maybe his other aspect, Wepwawet?” Daniel had said on that occasion.
“Very good,” the old man had replied. “Most people just think Anubis, but of course Khentiamentiu and Wepwawet go back earlier as predecessors of Osiris the god of the dead.”
“The Opener of Ways to the underworld,” Daniel had said.
“That’s it.”
It had led to a discussion of a mutual interest in Abydos, Egypt’s most ancient and holy burial ground, and a radical theory of Daniel’s that the tomb of this canine-linked predecessor still remained to be found.
“I’ll come to the point,” the sponsor said now, turning his back on the view of the pyramids. “I want to hire your services as guest Egyptologist on a Nile cruise, but also as an investigator. The rewards will be greater than you could possibly earn in years of guest lecturing.”
A few years away from the grind of guest lecturing, time to write more of those controversial books he longed to write and pursue those controversial theories he dreamed of pursuing, instead of playing ancient history tutor to fatuous groups of tourists in order to keep his ‘body-and-ka’ together as he termed it.
“Investigate?”
“Murder... mystery...”
“I’m an Egyptologist, Mr Hall,” Daniel said. “Not a detective.”
“I know. Call me Calder.”
“Unless... this is one of those mock murder mystery games. Modern day Death on the Nile, in the spirit of Agatha Christie.”
“See, he’s deducing already. You are onto my game, Daniel. Very shrewd. And in the tradition of so many mysteries, this one centres around a Last Will and Testament. Mine. And a deplorable, gathered family. Also mine, sadly. I am a dying man, you see. I have weeks or so left to live.” He sounded remarkably fatalistic about it. This part might not be a game. Calder had a skin pallor the shade of sun-bleached limestone.
“Are
you going to be all right to go on a cruise?” Daniel said. “Do you have an
assistant to help you along?”
“A nurse, you mean? Pah! Can’t bear mothering. No, I only have Jack, my stick.
And of course the boat’s registered doctor on board if I need any attention.
But I do have an assistant of sorts. A young protégé filmmaker who is doing the
story. I want this production
recorded, you see. To help me in this, I have hired Mayet, a talented young
Egyptian filmmaker who will work unobtrusively with a camcorder, documenting
our little drama. I expect everyone to give her full support in the project. She must have full all-access, at all
times. So here’s how it plays. I
give an opening warning to my gathered clan that I’m reconsidering my Will,
rewriting it as I go, and making some drastic changes along the way, depending
on what I see in them. Hence my lawyer Hyman is along for the ride. My family
has been a great disappointment to me over the years, Daniel. This cruise will
be my last scrutiny of them all. They’ll be facing a final judgement, just as I
will be facing mine soon enough. I’ve brought them all to Egypt on a special
Nile cruise for the occasion.”
”That’s a lot of trouble to go to.”
“Trouble may be putting it mildly when it comes to the possible repercussions when they hear my ruminations on the Will and their prospects of inheritance.”
“It’s going to be controversial.”
“And competitive. In such a family as mine it may even turn out to be deadly.”
“So a murder or two, then?”
“On the cards. And not just a whodunit, it may be a who-is-going-to-do-it.”
An intriguing family murder game.
Unlike Calder Hall, the lawyer sitting opposite him did not look like a game player. He was as formally dressed as an undertaker. Who else wore a waistcoat in Egypt?
Daniel dubbed him Legal Suit.
“My client, Mr Hall is a quirky man, as he readily admits,” Legal Suit said solemnly. “He likes putting people in situations.”
“And I’m being put in one too?”
The old man now smiled.
“You are an Egyptologist and that’s like detective work, digging for the facts. But you’re also an informal man by your reputation, a man who will break with tradition.”
Sunday, July 26, 2020
*****5 star GOODREADS "The Egyptian Mythology Murders" Trilogy in 1
AMAZON Kindle (and paperback) |
3 Egyptian mythology-driven mystery thrillers set in the modern day, but with a twist of the ancient unknown.
A unique investigative team of Jennefer, a museum curator, and Jon a London antiquities detective - two very different people who work in 'kindred professions'... The X-Files meets 'The Mummy'...
- THE EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY MURDERS
A mummy named Isis is taken to a hospital for a non-invasive imaging scan… so begins a mystery and a string of deaths.
An ancient cycle unfolds in modern day London - and a search for eternal love.
Can Jennefer, a young trainee museum curator and Jon, a police antiquities unit detective, stop the killings in time before a terrible culmination of events?
- THE OBELISK PROPHECY One Egyptian obelisk is the key to saving civilization
- THE EGYPTIAN CROCODILE CURSE An Egypt exhibition, a series of mythological murders
Saturday, July 25, 2020
“I’m an archaeologist, not a detective,” Daniel said. New. "Murder on the Nile Mystery Cruise"
It had all the murder mystery tropes, with a luxurious, atmospheric cruise thrown in, Daniel thought.
The Reading of a Will. A rich man's undeserving, gathered family.
A detective - or at least an archaeologist - playing the role of murder detective.
Daniel Cane was at sea... on the world's longest river.
New launch on Amazon Kindle |
Friday, July 24, 2020
New Book Trailer: "MURDER on the NILE MYSTERY CRUISE"
Thursday, July 23, 2020
"As the paddle wheels turned like the pages of a vintage Agatha Christie detective novel...
UPDATE: The Archaeologist Detective range - Amazon Kindle and paperback
NEW LAUNCH: "MURDER ON THE NILE Mystery Cruise" (Murder/Detective)
AMAZON KINDLE LAUNCH |
Thursday, July 2, 2020
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
Ancient Egypt – 3 Surprising Cases of ANCIENT BIOLOGICAL WARFARE
And of course the Egyptians reached for an even bigger stick.
They employed potent execration texts and rituals against enemies, believed to weaken and flatten them... 'esoteric weapons of mass destruction'... (Could they still be deadly today? See "'The Smiting Texts', the archaeological mystery thriller.)
Amazon paperback and Kindle |
Monday, June 22, 2020
Truthfully, what do you, and all Egyptologists, ACTUALLY LOVE ABOUT ancient Egypt?
Saturday, May 30, 2020
“Life's 1st Great Mystery – Death... and the Afterlife". Fiction mystery thrillers probe
ROY LESTER POND - Mystery thrillers ON AMAZON KINDLE and Paperback. |
Do we have a future? |
“1st Great Mystery – Death... and the Afterlife".
ROY LESTER POND - ON AMAZON KINDLE and Paperback. |
“1st Great Mystery – Death... and the Afterlife". Fiction mystery thrillers probe
Ancient Egypt penetrated the most fascinating human question of all – is there life after death?
Do we have a future? |
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
Thursday, May 21, 2020
THE IBIS APOCALYPSE 'Open this Book of Thoth and you will possess the powers...'
AMAZON Paperback and Kindle |
The Book of Thoth, Egypt’s god of magic, is the most dangerous source of esoteric texts ever written.
Anson Hunter, controversial alternative Egyptologist and theorist, is obsessed with locating it before the wrong people get hold of it.
The texts bring frightening power but also a terrible backlash. Twice in history the contents have come to light – the first time in the reign of Rameses the Great, linked with the Plagues of Egypt and the suffering of the Hebrews, and in 1939 when a German Egyptologist took rubbings of the stone texts to Hitler’s Germany before the horrors of World War II.
Israeli Intelligence and its allies in the USA become alarmed when the Destiny Stela threatens to break into history once again. As they are all too aware, the Stela of Destiny is the Holy Grail for organisations and conspirators with dangerous political and religious agendas, both in the USA and in Europe.
Anson embarks on an investigation, pursued by enemies and shadowed by striking Israeli Mossad agent Zara Margolin and suspicious Egyptian authorities, in a hunt that covers USA, UK and secret archaeological sites in Egypt.
‘The Ibis Apocalypse’ is a danger-fraught adventure that unfolds against the background of ancient Egypt’s enthralling legend and mythology.
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
There are 2 Egypts... one is the 'Egypt of the Mind'
THE EGYPT OF THE MIND
New Release - AMAZON KINDLE |
-
AMAZON Kindle and paperback
-
A child obsessed with the ancient past, a young mother who discovers adventure…“ I remember Egypt,” Cooper said gravely. “Long, long ago....
-
AMAZON Paperback and Kindle
-
“Roy Lester Pond joins my favourite Egypt authors like Christian Jacq.” “A furious pace keeps the reader engrossed.”- Goodreads Nefer...
-
THE GHOST OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. A Novel. There is a certain statue in the Sculpture Gallery of the British Museum of the son of Rames...
-
"5-stars for being so different from other apocalyptic books." Goodreads "What an interesting story. Reading their blog...
-
A Ancient Egypt Repeat Ancient Visitors An Egyptian Guide to the Underworld Anson Hunter series C E Egypt Jump Egypto...