At age 31, Victorian gentlewoman Amelia Peabody has inherited her father's fortune. As she heads for Cairo to indulge her passion for Egypt, she's accompanied by a girl with a tarnished past. Awaiting them both are murder and a homicidal mummy. First in the series. "Between Amelia Peabody and Indiana Jones, it's Amelia, in wit and daring, by a landslide."—The New York Times Book Review