| The answer to Nefret's prayer to Hathor came in
the form of twins, a girl and a boy.
It is two and one half years later than the
last volume and the Great War is finally over. The whole family is
happily settled in at Luxor and Walter and Evelyn have joined them
for the season, bringing Lia and David. Nefret and Ramses are
fretting over the babbling of the twins who seem long overdue to
talk. They are already walking, crawling and running with
ruthless effectiveness, and the cats, Horus and The Great Cat of
Re, are becoming adept at avoiding them.
Everyone is focused on the continued work on
the royal tomb that Bertie and Cyrus discovered in the cliffs
overlooking the Village of the Workmen (Deir el Medina).
Evelyn is to copy wall paintings and David and Lia are to help in
the restoration of the fragile objects that are being brought
out. The tomb belonged to one of the God's Wife of Amun, who
reigned in Thebes during the Late Period.
They are settling into a routine when the
Egyptian Antiquities Department announces that they want to
transport the tomb contents back to Cairo. This puts everyone
in a flutter as they prepare the exhibits and fret over the
"division" of the objects. Cyrus had been hoping for
a favorable distribution to enhance his collections.
The disappearance and murder of their chief
restorer, along with his theft of several valuable pieces of jewelry
signals that the antiquities thieves are targeting the cache of
treasures, too.
The Master Criminal becomes involved when his
own daughter Molly, introduced in The Falcon at the Portal, becomes
the object of Amelia's never ending efforts to reform and
rehabilitate their larcenous acquaintances.
There is danger, romance, and a spectacular
boat chase before it is over. Amelia disguises herself with an
eye patch, and the twins finally say their first words.
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