Egyptian Enigma: Dr. Pimms, Intermillennial Sleuth

In Owen’s intriguing if flawed third mystery featuring Elizabeth Pimms (after 2016’s Mayan Mendacity), Elizabeth puts her dreams of becoming an Egyptologist on hold while she earns money as a university librarian and instructor in Canberra, Australia. To slake her passion, Elizabeth travels to Egypt, where a woman breaks into her Cairo hotel room, and, for no obvious reason, steals her journal, which contains only her private notes about her trip. When she returns home, Elizabeth gets caught up in an ancient mystery—determining who built Egypt’s legendary Golden Tomb by using 3D printing to reconstruct and identify the skeletal remains of the person interred in it. Her inquiries, aided by visits to her version of a mind palace that’s populated by an avatar of Agatha Christie, alternate with flashbacks to court intrigue in the 12th century BCE, as pharaoh Seti II’s rule—and life—come under threat. The present-day action, which includes Elizabeth’s mundane struggles with some obnoxious students in a tutorial, builds to an unsatisfying ending. The sections devoted to Ancient Egypt will please historical fans. (Oct.)