Today I’m reviewing the latest in the Lady Eleanor Swift series. Many thanks to Bookouture for having me on the tour and letting me have a copy of the book to review.
The Book: A cruise down the Nile, a camel ride around the pyramids, lunch in the shadow of the Sphinx… And a very dead body!
1924. Lady Eleanor Swift and her butler Clifford are touring the great, ancient sights of Egypt on a much-anticipated extended vacation. But when the pair arrive at the docks in Cairo expecting to board the luxurious paddle steamer advertised in their brochure, they are baffled by the crumbling old cruiser waiting for them. And things only go from bad to worse as death stalks the decks of the SS Cleopatra…
Two days into the trip one of their fellow passengers, Lieutenant Baxter, is found shot dead in his locked cabin. Immediately suspicious and desperate to see justice done, Eleanor discovers a half-finished note addressed to her hidden in Baxter’s travelling trunk. In it he asks her to deliver a vitally important letter to the authorities at their next stop down river: a priceless treasure worthy of a king has been stolen and an innocent man’s life hangs in the balance.
But before the sands of time wipe away all evidence on board, Eleanor must uncover who among the other travellers wanted Baxter dead. Was it the anxious archaeologist who doesn’t have an alibi, the reptile expert with a passion for the murderous Nile crocodile or the art dealer with a devious secret?
With the killer readying to strike again much closer to home, can Eleanor dig up the truth before she’s trapped in a tomb under the pyramids forever?
Buy Link:
Amazon: https://geni.us/B0CYQBKJLNsocial
The Review: This was another brilliant instalment in this series. Ever since I watched Death on the Nile years ago I’ve dreamt of going on a cruise down the Nile, though preferably without the murders! Anyway, because of that and the fact that I love this series I was looking forward to this book and I was not disappointed. This book is set almost completely in Egypt, and we spend a lot of time with Eleanor and Clifford, without the Henley Hall team, Gladstone or Hugh. Much as I like seeing the others involved it was nice to spend more time with just Eleanor and Clifford.
The story doesn’t start off well, Eleanor finds that the boat she is travelling down the Nile on looks nothing like the brochure that she saw, and things only get worse from there. The other passengers on the ship range from grumpy to downright suspicious with one exception, and even he isn’t quite all he seems. There are a number of mysteries in this story, one of which relates to the passengers attitudes and lies. The atmosphere on the ship was described perfectly, as was the ship itself and all the little details, including Clifford’s fabulous fan setup to keep Eleanor cool in her room. I also loved the details about the places they stopped off and the attention to detail with the food and drinks. There’s a scene on the ship where all of the food items are named and I really liked having that detail in there.
This was an excellent mystery that kept me guessing, there are plenty of red herrings, misleading clues and, of course, a murder in a locked room. It was beautifully twisty and engaging and I really enjoyed it. Definitely worth reading if you like historical mysteries. It would be beneficial to have read the previous books in the series, as it’s good to see the characters and their relationships develop, but there’s enough detail in this book that it’s not essential if you’re wanting to try the series out now, and catch up with the rest of the books later.
The Author:
Verity Bright is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing partnership that has spanned a quarter of a century. Starting out writing high-end travel articles and books, they published everything from self-improvement to humour, before embarking on their first historical mystery. They are the authors of the fabulous Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery series, set in the 1920s.
Sign up to be the first to hear about new releases from Verity Bright here: https://www.bookouture.com/verity-bright
