Shadows on the Nile

August 12, 2013
At age seven, Jessie Kenton’s upper-middle-class London world revolved around her emotionally disturbed younger brother, Georgie. One night, with no explanation, their parents took Georgie away, “replacing” him with an orphan boy named Timothy, whom they had adopted. After the initial pain of separation, Jessie gradually warmed to Timothy, but never forgot Georgie. Twenty years later, in 1932, Timothy, now an up-and-coming archaeologist, has disappeared, leaving behind cryptic clues for Jessie taken from their favorite Sherlock Holmes novels. She quickly deduces that he’s in Egypt and leaves for Cairo to try and track him down. With Egypt shaking off the last footholds of British colonialism and artifact smugglers lurking in the shadows, Jessie faces danger at every turn. What’s more, she doesn’t yet know that Timothy has forged a strange, but durable, bond with Georgie, and that finding answers to one brother’s disappearance will lead to a new understanding of what happened to the other. Furnivall laces this fast-paced historical adventure with surprisingly poignant interludes that ultimately connect to the family mystery at its heart. There are a few awkward plot twists, and a largely superfluous romantic subplot, but that won’t keep readers from connecting deeply with the Kenton siblings. Agent: Teresa Chris, Teresa Chris Literary Agency.

September 15, 2013
Furnivall's plucky-as-usual heroine finds adventure and love from London, England, to Luxor, Egypt, in this formulaic romance/adventure (The Russian Concubine, 2007, etc.). Little Jessie loves her brother Georgie, although her parents find him loathsome. Mentally disturbed and difficult to handle, Georgie is spirited out of the house in the middle of the night, and when Jessie awakens the next morning, she finds another blond, blue-eyed cherub in his bed. Her mother and father introduce him as her new brother, Tim. Jessie is adamant that she wants Georgie back, but Tim, who is even stuck wearing Georgie's left-behind clothes, grows on her; despite the fact that Jessie never forgets or gets over losing Georgie, she dotes on Tim and they grow close. When Tim, an archaeologist specializing in Egyptian relics, disappears following a mysterious seance, Jessie is determined to follow the clues she believes Tim left her, all derived from the Sherlock Holmes mysteries she used to read to him when they were children. Along the way, she meets a handsome, struggling nobleman of little means who is trying to hold onto his family's ancestral home, a batty older woman traveling alone, a shifty doctor and a poor Egyptian boy. Jessie and the nobleman, Monty, follow the trail from 1932 London to Cairo and on to Luxor, where they find a complex conspiracy and a surprise awaiting them. Furnivall, beloved by her fans for her romantic historical thrillers, has written a book her followers will like, but the thinly constructed plot barely holds together, especially where the relationship between the two brothers is concerned. Furnivall populates her book with memorable characters, but the story's just so-so.

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September 15, 2013
When Jessie Kenton was young, her beloved brother, Georgie, was whisked away during the night and replaced by a different boy before morning. Jessie begged to know where Georgie had been taken but over time came to love her new, adopted brother, Timothy. Twenty years later, though, it's Tim who goes missing, and this time Jessie goes in search of him herself. Following clues in the manner of her idol, Sherlock Holmes, Jessie chases one confusing lead after another. As the search takes her ever farther from home, it brings her closer to a connection to the lost Georgie and to a new courtship with the immensely helpful Sir Montague Chamford. Though the romance is easily predicted, it's offset by the many surprises sprinkled throughout this historical whodunit. Setting her novel in the early twentieth century, Furnivall highlights the archaeology craze in Egypt and the turbulent political climate in London to create an enjoyable, page-turning blend of history, mystery, and love that will intrigue readers, especially admirers of Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody novels.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)