Talbot Mundy brings everything together in this story. Beginning in California and travelling to Cairo to uncover Khufu's lost tomb, Ramsden, Grim, and Singh touch all the bases you expect to be covered. There is a vast treasure to be revealed, conflicts with mysterious political forces behind the scenes, and Mundy's ever present preoccupation with a just independence movement for the Arab people. He also introduces a couple of new characters, Joan Angela Leich (look up "Leich" in German, btw) and a Chinese mathematician with the secret of the Great Pyramid at his fingertips. Pyramidology also runs rampant in the book. Oh, yes, and Grim is back, albeit not in the same force as in the earlier books/stories of the Jimgrim series. This is still Ramsden's story.

Mundy's stories all occur in places he lived. It is more than one of the charms of his books. It is the key, often, to enjoying them fully. He achieves it, here, where the first third of the story and more takes place in the remote regions of California (Mundy lived for a while in Truckee and also knew the Lake Tahoe region, where, of course, therein lies Pyramid Lake) and has the feel of a detective novel. And, needless to say, the setting in Cairo for the remainder of the book closely incorporates Mundy's experiences of visiting Egypt and his obsession with the Great Pyramid.

Fabulous story. One of the best of the bunch.

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