Joan Hess is one of my favorite writers: she mixes humor, lively dialogue, and great characters into each book. She knows how to capture the feel of a small college town, and one of her series features Claire Malloy, who runs a small bookstore in Farberville, Arkansas. Claire has a teenage daughter (Caron) and is a single parent; her husband died. In earlier books in the series, Claire solves a series of mysteries and gets more than acquainted with Peter Rosen, local police officer. A romance evolves between the two, but is not conflict free.
The latest book in the series, Mummy Dearest, (2008) begins with an informal wedding and an unlikely honeymoon. Claire, her daughter Caron and Caron's best friend Inez fly to Egypt, to meet Peter, who went ahead of them. Peter has received special training and is now more than a small town police officer. Claire has learned it is best not to ask too many questions, but knows that the trip is part honeymoon, part business, which is one of the reasons for bringing the two teenagers along. Now they are all staying in an elegant old hotel in Luxor, in a fancy suite, complete with balcony, fireplaces, a parlor, and servants. While having breakfast, Claire is approached by a young British man, Alexander, who invites her to a party his father (Lord Bledrock) is having that evening.
Peter and Claire are then introduced to an eccentric and lively group of people, who are in Egypt because they are working on an archeological dig. Several of the British are wealthy sponsors, helping to fund the small American college officially in charge of the dig. They also meet a couple of other guests at the hotel, including a rather obnoxious Texan, Mr. Sittermann, who seems to be everywhere.
As Peter divides his time between sightseeing and a series of mysterious meetings, Claire and the girls settle in to a routine of sightseeing, shopping, and relaxing. Claire spends more time than she would like with the socially gregarious Alexander, his father, Mr. Sittermann and the collection of people associated with the dig. Later, Peter and Claire take the girls on a brief cruise, and meet a rather mismatched young couple, Buffy and Samuel. Mr. Sittermann shows up on the cruise as well. They make several stops to sightsee, and during one of these stops something strange happens--Buffy is kidnapped by two gun-toting Arab men, right in front of them.
The author does a wonderful job of describing many of the well known landmarks in Egypt--the temples, tombs, pyramids, and desert. My parents went on a whirlwind tour of the middle east back in the early 1970s: I was a high school senior and wondered why they didn't take me along with them, but it was one of those fast paced tours that started in New York to London to Rome and then on to Egypt and Israel. I have a stack of trays of slides from that trip; my mother was a photo-journalist of sorts, and later gave presentations in the community about their travels. (After reading this book, and some of the descriptions of the two irritable, bored teenagers, I think I understand why they left me at home!)
This book also made me think of several of the pictures from my parents' trip: in one, my father (who is 6'2") is dwarfed by the massive columns of a temple while in another my mother is up on a camel, while my father stands nearby. As it turns out, he had to borrow some money from a friend to pay the camel driver more money to get my mom OFF the camel! The last picture I will post here: my parents are surrounded by smiling porters and workers at the airport.
If you can't get away for a little trip to Egypt this summer, Mummy Dearest is the next best thing. You may get thirsty, reading about all those excursions out into the hot, dusty desert to see the tombs and digs, so be sure to grab a tall glass of something icy first. You can find Mummy Dearest in the NEW books display; it has the Mystery sticker on the spine.
c Waterloo Public Library 2008
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