Death Shall Come - a mummy at the manor house
Death Shall Come A country house murder mystery by Simon R. Green Severn House Mystery & Thrillers Pub Date 01 Sep 2017
Review
Simon R Green clearly has fun turning the classic manor house mystery upside down and tackling classic monsters in his Ishmael Jones series. Already he’s tackled a vampire and the Loch Ness monster. Now it’s a mummy’s turn.
As a favor to the Colonel, Ishmael and Penny head to the Cardavan homestead where the largest trove of privately owned Egyptian artefacts resides. The Colonel is concerned about how his father-in-law was able to purchase the previously undiscovered mummy of the first Cleopatra. As the head of Black Heir, a company known to deal in alien artefacts, his actions are suspect. He is of course the first to die (in a locked room with the only key in his pocket). Is it the mummy no longer resting in its sarcophagus? Or is the murderer one of the group gathered together for its unveiling? Ishmael doesn't believe in mummies, but he knows monsters exist.
Death Shall Come is a fun read, but the witty repartee between Penny and Ishmael seems a bit tired. Despite this, there is plenty to enjoy. Ishmael as always is a charming professional, honorable to a t. It is also nice to finally get a little bit of background on the mysterious Colonel. And we get a few hints about how Ishmael ended up on Earth. Death Shall Come may not be the best novel in the series, but it is still very good and will definitely keep fans happy.
4 / 5
I received a copy of Death Shall Come from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.
--Crittermom
Description
Ishmael Jones is faced with a dead body and a missing mummy in this highly entertaining, genre-blending mystery. Death shall come on swift wings to whoever desecrates this tomb … Ishmael Jones and his partner Penny have been summoned to remote Cardavan House, home of the world’s largest private collection of Ancient Egyptian artefacts, for the unveiling of George Cardavan’s latest acquisition: a bone fide Egyptian mummy. When a bloodstained body is discovered beside the empty sarcophagus, Ishmael is dismissive of the theory that the mummy’s curse is to blame. Instead he sets out to uncover the human killer responsible. But how can Ishmael explain the strange, shuffling footsteps that creep along the corridors? Who is playing games with them … and why?
