The Painted Queen by Elizabeth Peters and Joan Hess, New in Bookstores during July 2017

Today's featured new hardcover mystery, suspense, or thriller title scheduled to be published during July 2017 is …

The Painted Queen by Elizabeth Peters and Joan Hess, an Amelia Peabody Mystery (20th in series)

Publisher: William Morrow

 

Arriving in Cairo for another thrilling excavation season, Amelia is relaxing in a well-earned bubble bath in her elegant hotel suite in Cairo, when a man with knife protruding from his back staggers into the bath chamber and utters a single word — "Murder" — before collapsing on the tiled floor, dead. Among the few possessions he carried was a sheet of paper with Amelia's name and room number, and a curious piece of pasteboard the size of a calling card bearing one word: "Judas." Most peculiarly, the stranger was wearing a gold-rimmed monocle in his left eye.

It quickly becomes apparent that someone saved Amelia from a would-be assassin — someone who is keeping a careful eye on the intrepid Englishwoman. Discovering a terse note clearly meant for Emerson — Where were you?" — pushed under their door, there can be only one answer: the brilliant master of disguise, Sethos.

But neither assassins nor the Genius of Crime will deter Amelia as she and Emerson head to the excavation site at Amarna, where they will witness the discovery of one of the most precious Egyptian artifacts: the iconic Nefertiti bust. In 1345 B.C. the sculptor Thutmose crafted the piece in tribute to the great beauty of this queen who was also the chief consort of Pharaoh Akhenaten and stepmother to King Tutankhamun.

For Amelia, this excavation season will prove to be unforgettable. Throughout her journey, a parade of men in monocles will die under suspicious circumstances, fascinating new relics will be unearthed, a diabolical mystery will be solved, and a brilliant criminal will offer his final challenge … and perhaps be unmasked at last.

— The Painted Queen by Elizabeth Peters and Joan Hess

For a list of more new hardcover titles to be published this month, visit our New Mysteries page for July 2017. For new paperback titles, visit The Mystery Bookshelf where a selection of July 2017 mysteries, novels of suspense, and thrillers are shelved.