"An-ket will not rest until destiny has been met"
England, 1848
Dr. Simon Archer is an Egyptologist whose fame had just
gone up another notch with his latest discovery. Quite by
accident, Simon had stumbled upon the tomb of the lady An-
ket. Well not quite by accident. An-ket has a reason for
not joining the great beyond, some unfinished business to
attend to. Simon is content with his work though at times it is quite
lonely. However the last thing on his mind is acquiring a
wife. Simon views women as frail flowers; needing a man's
hand to guide them. He should know being the brother of
three younger sisters. Even his widowed mother had become
quite dependent on him fordecisions since his father's
death. At any rate a young woman of quality would never be
able to tolerate
the primate nature of the perils of Egypt. Simon does however have a soul mate of sorts. An "elderly
woman' with whom he corresponds. Miss Hanson is quite
remarkable in fact. The woman is a self-taught translator
of hieroglyphics among other languages. Her shared interest
in his work has gotten him through many a difficult moment.
Out of courtesy, he had invited her to attend the exhibit
of his latest find. Simon truly does not expect the elderly lady to make the
journey though the thought makes him somewhat sad. But he
is thrown completely for a loop when he discovers that the
lady did indeed make the journey but that she was not at
all the way he envisioned her. Julia is young and attractive, and Simon dismisses her
immediately for a liar and a schemer. After all he knows
woman and this young lady just cannot be the expert she
claims to be. Simon has a nemesis, a spiritualist who takes advantage of
people's grief by promising to contact their late loved
ones. Simon has no tolerance for such bunkum, and
especially since his own mother had becomeinterested. Could
this woman be in league with the rogue? Julia is not to be thwarted and sneaking into the exhibit
on her own has a shocking experience. She along with a
cleaning woman is accosted by a thief. Just as the thief
threatens to do the unthinkable to Julia, lightning strikes
leaving little trace of the man's existence. If that were
not startling enough the cleaning woman now has a proud
bearing and a cultured voice. Has An-ket been awakened? Indeed she has, and Julia is a true believer, unfortunately
Simon will take some convincing especially when An-ket
keeps inhabiting different beings and never in Simon's
presence. It doesn't help that Simon has discovered
Julia's plan to marry him, in order to live her dream of
traveling to Egypt and digging for artifacts first hand.
Yet he is drawn to the woman, and in his secret heart he
relishes having his soul mate in his life. No way is he
taking her to Egypt though. An-ket has other plans, for she does indeed have unfinished
business with Julia, Simon, and one phony spiritualist and
she will not rest until their destiny has been met. There were some really funny moments as Simon is shaken
from his stereotypical ideas, and An-ket finds unique ways
to thwart the bad guys. All in all a light and amusing
read. Copyright © 2000
Reviewed by Leslie Tramposch
Posted June 7, 2002
|
