The irascible husband of Victorian Egyptologist Amelia Peabody demonstrates again why he has been nicknamed “Dad of Curses.” Rejected permission to dig at the pyramids of Dahshoor, Emerson is awarded rather the “pyramids” of Mazghunah: countless mounds of rubble in the middle of nowhere. Nothing in this barren spot seems worth interest-until an antiquities dealer can be murdered in his Cairo shop.

Whenever a sinister Egyptian spotted in the criminal offense scene turns up in Mazghunah, Amelia can’t resist following his path. There’s a strange scrap of papyrus and a missing mummy case to investigate, while she retains at least one vision on the precocious kid, Ramses, and his Egyptian cat. However the digging changes truly dangerous when Amelia and Emerson search for answers within an historic tomb-one that could become their grave.