Tuesday, October 04, 2022

What is Tasha Alexander reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Tasha Alexander, author of Secrets of the Nile: A Lady Emily Mystery (Volume 16).

Her entry begins:
I recently finished Ann Mah’s phenomenal Jacqueline in Paris, a meticulously researched novel that tells the story of the year Jacqueline Bouvier spent in Paris as a college student. Mah brings post-war Paris to life, contrasting its bullet-riddled buildings and grimy façades with the city’s elegant beauty. An endlessly talented writer, she immerses the reader in Jacqueline’s world. Student cafés, politics, and the struggles of those who suffered during the war draw...[read on]
About Secrets of the Nile, from the publisher:
In a brilliant homage to Agatha Christie, critically acclaimed author Tasha Alexander sends Lady Emily to Egypt during British colonial rule to investigate a crime that leads back to the era of the Pharaohs.

In Secrets of the Nile, Lady Emily and her husband, Colin Hargreaves, have joined his formidable mother on a holiday to visit the exotic treasures of Egypt. Their host, Lord Bertram Deeley, is a renowned amateur British collector of antiquities, who has invited his closest friends on a lavish cruise up the Nile to his home at Luxor. But on the first night of their journey, he suddenly collapses after offering a welcome toast, a victim of the lethal poison cyanide. Who amongst this group of his nearest and dearest would want to kill their generous host?

Emily and Colin’s investigation soon reveals that even his closest friends had reasons to want him dead: was it the archeologist whose dig Deeley was poised to fund until he suddenly withdrew support? The powerful politician whose career Deeley had secretly destroyed? The dyspeptic aristocratic English spinster whose hired travelling companion seems determined to protect her employer? Or could it be Mrs. Hargreaves herself, who may have spurned the advances of Lord Deeley when they were both younger?

A key clue may lie with several ancient ushabtis, exquisite three-thousand-year-old sculptures that played a role in a hidden story from the time of Ancient Egypt, one of a sister’s unshakeable loyalty to her brother, a tale of betrayal and revenge. In an unforgettable finale, Emily and Colin gather their fellow travelers together to unmask a killer whose motive is as shocking as it is brilliant.
Visit Tasha Alexander's website.

Q&A with Tasha Alexander.

The Page 69 Test: The Dark Heart of Florence.

Writers Read: Tasha Alexander.

--Marshal Zeringue