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.”


AMAZON KINDLE. NEW

Sunday, July 26, 2020

Meet a new breed of investigator - the archaeologist detective - in a new Egypt mystery series

Embark on a mysterious journey at AMAZON KINDLE



*****5 star GOODREADS "The Egyptian Mythology Murders" Trilogy in 1

AMAZON Kindle (and paperback)
Ancient Egypt resurrected...
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
New murder mystery adventure with a new breed of crime investigator – Daniel Cane, the archaeologist detective.
Death on the Nile gets a modern twist in ‘Murder on the Nile Mystery Cruise.’.

It was supposed to be a ‘mock murder mystery’ game aboard an atmospheric cruiser. The luxuriously refurbished paddle wheeler, the Belle Epoque - on a lockdown cruise.

But suddenly the group mystery murder game turns deadly serious.

Daniel, guest Egyptologist, must play the role of murder detective as the passenger list of victims grows.

But don’t archaeologists and detectives both dig for the truth?

Turns out finding ancient ruins and archaeological treasures is very different from solving murders.


Friday, July 24, 2020

New Book Trailer: "MURDER on the NILE MYSTERY CRUISE"



As the paddle wheels of the Belle Epoque slowly turn like the pages of a vintage Agatha Christie detective novel, a contemporary ‘mock murder’ mystery game was supposed to commence aboard the luxury Nile cruise boat.

But all is not as it seems...”



Death on the Nile gets a modern twist in ‘Murder on the Nile Mystery Cruise.’.

It was supposed to be a ‘mock murder mystery’ game aboard an atmospheric cruiser. The luxuriously refurbished paddle wheeler, the Belle Epoque - on a lockdown cruise.

But suddenly the group mystery murder game turns deadly serious.

Daniel, guest Egyptologist, must play the role of murder detective as the passenger list of victims grows.

But don’t archaeologists and detectives both dig for the truth?

Turns out finding ancient ruins and archaeological treasures is very different from solving murders.

New murder mystery adventure with a new breed of crime investigator – Daniel Cane, the archaeologist detective!

Thursday, July 23, 2020

"As the paddle wheels turned like the pages of a vintage Agatha Christie detective novel...





A CAMCORDER VIDEO CAPTURES THE SETTING OF THE STORY, AN ANTIQUE PADDLE WHEELER BOAT ON THE MOVE - THREE TIERS OF WHITE EDWARDIAN CONFECTION, WITH SIDE WHEELER PADDLES CHURNING THE WATER.

S.S.BELLE EPOQUE’: A LUXURY NILE STEAM VESSEL FROM A GLORIOUS ERA.



VOICE OVER (Daniel Cane, cruise Egyptologist): “As the paddle wheels of the Belle Epoque slowly turn like the pages of a vintage Agatha Christie detective novel, a contemporary ‘mock murder’ mystery game was supposed to commence aboard the luxury Nile cruise boat.

But all is not as it seems...



UPDATE:
The Archaeologist Detective range - Amazon Kindle and paperback

NEW LAUNCH: "MURDER ON THE NILE Mystery Cruise" (Murder/Detective)

AMAZON KINDLE LAUNCH

As the paddle wheels of the Belle Epoque slowly turn like the pages of a vintage Agatha Christie detective novel, a contemporary ‘mock murder’ mystery game was supposed to commence aboard the luxury Nile cruise boat.
But all is not as it seems...”

Death on the Nile gets a modern twist in ‘Murder on the Nile Mystery Cruise.’.
It was supposed to be a ‘mock murder mystery’ game aboard an atmospheric cruiser. The luxuriously refurbished paddle wheeler, the Belle Epoque - on a lockdown cruise.
But suddenly the group mystery murder game turns deadly serious.
Daniel, guest Egyptologist, must play the role of murder detective as the passenger list of victims grows.
But don’t archaeologists and detectives both dig for the truth?
Turns out finding ancient ruins and archaeological treasures is very different from solving murders.
New murder mystery adventure with a new breed of crime investigator – Daniel Cane, the archaeologist detective!

Thursday, July 2, 2020

St Cyril & co get a further serve in my Anson Hunter Egypt novel "The God Dig"

Kara's Cooney's recent Facebook post