City of the Dead (Egyptian Mysteries)

Huy is a good character and the period of the mystery makes it very enjoyable for me. I much prefer ancient mysteries to most of the modern settings. Those glimpses of everyday life, likely as factual as possible, make the background extremely interesting and keep the reader interested. There are three books in the series, I am half way through the last one; the first two were very good.

This is book 3 about the ex-Scribe Huy, damaged survivor of the era of the mystical mad king Akhenaten, no longer allowed to practice his profession as a Scribe, so he has become now a well known detective. We are now up to the time when Pharaoh Tutanhamun is ruling on his own; he is 17 yrs old and married to his half sister (though that fact isn't mentioned; they are both children of the late Pharaoh Akhenaten by different wives, an old custom of the Royal house.) Tut knows he is surrounded by intrigue and that the men who have been his regents: General Hormeheb and his wife's grandfather Ay, are the men he fears most. By the second chapter the beautiful young man has been killed, leaving the queen, in early pregnancy, alone and helpless. How Huy gets involved is, as always, hard to believe in that he is an official "enemy of the state" but he does; meets the young queen and despite his hardened cynical life instantly becomes protective of her and her unborn child...I don't like to reveal plots but I thoroughly enjoyed this book EVEN though I know (DON'T READ FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT PLOT SPOILED FOR YOU.........)that Tut's queen did end up forced to marry her own grandfather, Ay, to get him on the throne, and then disappeared into history...and that two tiny stillborn babies were buried w/ Tut, which remain a mystery as does the manner of his death despite a gazillion books and articles about it. Nevertheless this was an enjoyable read. Hope there will be more Huy books alhtough he seemed in danger of living happily ever after at the end!