Year of the Hyenas: A Novel of Murder in Ancient Egypt
A woman is murdered. The authorities hire a down-and-out investigator, a boozer who is still hung up on his ex-wife, to solve the case. Except that they don't expect him to solve it; in fact, they want him to fail. But our hero is a lot smarter than his employers suspect, and he uncovers a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of government. Sound like a fairly typical private-eye yarn? Well, it isn't. Because the dead woman is a priestess; the authorities are the feuding mayors of Thebes; the down-and-out investigator is Semerket, former clerk of Investigations and Secrets; and the whole sordid story takes place in Egypt, circa 1153 B.C.E. Some mysteries set in ancient Egypt are pedantic, fact-intensive tomes. This one, a first novel, avoids that trap. It's a solid, fast-paced mystery that's never overwhelmed by the author's research. Geagley is a multifaceted fellow--video-game designer, virtual-reality theme-park consultant,Jeopardychamp, film historian (he's an authority on the 1963 filmCleopatra)--and now, novelist. Let's hope he sticks with it for a while.David PittCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved