Murder in the Place of Anubis

Lord Meren is the typical detective hero, steadfast, honest, and with his faults though they seem minimal. The setting in ancient Egypt gives the novel (and the series) a rich historical background that the author puts to very good use. In the first novel you hit the ground running. Much has occurred in Lord Meren's life and you wonder if you have missed a novel or two in the series. You haven't. Each novel in the series has a specific mystery to be solved, but they will be part of a larger mystery that runs through the series. Robinson does shade in the background of life with a sure hand and does not simply dwell in the pharaoh's court. She takes you along to see a bit of the day-to-day life and then for an occasional trip to the darker recesses of the many temples.If you want a sense of life in Egypt in the time of Pharaoh, you should find this a rewarding read. If you want a good mystery, she serves it up with the standard fare of red herrings, dead ends, and other stylistic reglia demanded by the genre.As with most series, try to read them in the order they were written, as each supports the next as the plot progresses.

This series is excellent. I'm a huge fan of mysteries and ancient Egypt, so I was delighted to find this book. Her character development, literary style, and plotlines are superb. I truly enjoyed this book, and the others. I hope she writes many more.

Ancient Egypt comes to life again in this book. I enjoyed the period details and the relationships among the characters. The glimpses we get of court life follow what we learn about royalty and their courts from history rather than fairy tales. They didn't live "happily ever after." After reading what our young pharaoh and Lord Meren, his "eyes and ears" have to put up with, the sensible reader will give thanks for being a nobody. Even though I knew that people didn't live as long back then, it still seemed a bit strange to have Lord Meren, soon to be a grandfather, consider himself as getting up there in years when he's only 34. Meren's son, Kysen, has been a father for several years at an age where young American men today would just be turning old enough to vote. The only quarrel I have with this series is the portrayal of Queen Ankhesenamen. I first "met" her as a very sympathetic character in Morrison's *The Lost Queen of Egypt*, so the harsh portrait of her that Robinson draws is difficult for me to swallow. However, neither that nor knowing that Lord Meren must lose his beloved Pharaoh at a young age, prevented me from reading the other books. This is one of the authors for whom I am unwilling to wait for the paperback. Even now I can hardly wait for the next book. Ann E. Nichols

Lord Meren, the "Eyes and Ears of Pharoah," must deal with the murder of a royal scribe in a sacred place, where bodies are prepared for their travel to the afterlife. The task seems to Meren to be an easy one, until we learn that there is more to this mystery than simple hatred. Robinson's extensive knowledge of ancient Egypt (she has a Ph.D. in Anthropology) creates an unforgettable picture of a complex and fascinating society. Readers of historical mysteries will appreciate this latest contribution to the genre, and should look forward to the further adventures of Lord Meren, Pharoah and the other inhabitants of Egypt, circa 1330 B.C.

Robinson does a great job of making her ancient Egyptian characters accessible to a modern audience. Lord Meren, the "Eyes and Ears" of the Pharaoh, is a very complicated character and makes for a very intriguing, if unlikely, detective. This book, which I picked up entirely out of curiosity, is quite different from my usual diet of dark, hardboiled detective fiction, but I'd still recommend it unreservedly. I'll definitely be looking for others in the series