We are in London in 1890, and the British Museum plans to exhibit the contents, brought specially to London, of a newly excavated Egyptian tomb. The event is disturbed by the murder of a museum watchman. A suspect is quickly found, a young museum assistant, caught red-handed with a bloodstained knife. But things are not so simple; behind this apparently clear case Holmes uncovers, piece by piece, just as did the archaeologists, a complicated story of blackmail, violence and treachery, which, at every step, threatens him, and Watson, with deadly consequences. See how events ranging from the British Embassy in Cairo to a theatre in East London can baffle and confuse, until Holmes and Watson find the last pieces of the puzzle, and must fight for their lives.

Johanna Rieke is an author and a mathematician. A lively imagination, and a love of Sherlock Holmes stories, led to her first book being published in 2011. Six books have been now published in Germany, in both print and audio form. All are meticulously researched and authentic in detail to the world of Holmes and Watson. Her works are now being translated into English for MX Publishing, in London, and this is the fourth to appear. Johanna Rieke, now a Swiss citizen, lives with her English-born Swiss husband near Basel, and she is a member of the Sherlock Holmes Society in London and the Reichenbach Irregulars in Switzerland.