Secrets of the Nile: A Lady Emily Mystery

In bestseller Alexander’s intriguing 21st Lady Emily mystery (after 2021’s The Dark Heart of Florence), Lady Emily and her intelligence agent husband, Colin Hargreaves, travel to Egypt in 1904 at the invitation of Lord Deeley, an antiquities collector. At Deeley’s first dinner party, amid friends and acquaintances, he’s poisoned and dies. As usual, Alexander offers multiple suspects who have long personal histories with the victim—including Lady Emily’s mother-in-law—and plenty of clues and red herrings to discover and interpret. Lady Emily’s investigation alternates with chapters focused on a young woman sculptor named Meryt who lived along the Nile thousands of years before. Meryt’s struggles to carve figures out of alabaster while attempting to discover who vandalized her studio and threatened her family provide a nice counterpoint to Lady Emily’s investigation and efforts to build relationships with her mother-in-law and her stepdaughter, Kat. A murder in the past, meanwhile, turns out to have a link to Lord Deeley’s death. The resolution is surprising, with a twist readers won’t see coming. Alexander consistently entertains. Agent: Anne Hawkins, John Hawkins & Assoc. (Oct.)