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When Dr. Gul Delani receives a call in the middle of the night from the Sindh police, she thinks they may have finally found her niece, Mahnaz—a precocious, politically conscious teenage girl who went missing three years prior. Gul has been racked with grief since Mahnaz’s disappearance and distracts herself through work: a talented curator at the Museum of Heritage and History in Karachi, she is one of the country’s leading experts in archaeology and ancient civilizations, a hard-won position for a woman.
But there is no news of Mahnaz. Instead, Gul is summoned to a narcotics investigation in a remote desert region in western Pakistan. In her wildest dreams, Gul couldn’t have imagined what she’d find there: amid a drug bust gone wrong, there is a mummy—life-size, seemingly authentic, its sarcophagus decorated with symbols from Persepolis, the capital of the Achaemenid Empire. The discovery confounds everyone. It is both too good to be true, and for Gul, too precious to leave in careless or corrupt hands.
Aided by her team of unlikely misfits, Gul will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of it, even as her quest for the truth puts her in the throes of a dangerous conspiracy and threatens to collide with her ongoing search for Mahnaz. A portrait of a city fueled by corruption and a woman relentlessly in pursuit of justice, The Museum Detective is an exciting, gritty new crime thriller that announces a whip-smart and brilliant sleuth and builds to a stunning, emotional conclusion that readers won’t soon forget.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
April 1, 2025 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781641296571
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781641296571
- File size: 1921 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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December 1, 2024
Phillips makes her U.S. debut with a story inspired by a real-life antiquities scandal in Pakistan. Archaeologist Dr. Gul Delani, a curator at the Museum of Heritage and History in Karachi, is called on to examine a seemingly authentic mummy found during a drug bust. As she investigates the mummy's origins, she uncovers a dangerous conspiracy. Prepub Alert.
Copyright 2024 Library Journal
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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March 1, 2025
The city of Karachi turns out to be a hotbed of criminal activity in this series opener. When Pakistani museum curator and Egyptologist Gulfsa Delani receives an urgent phone call in the middle of the night from Deputy Superintendent Farhan Akthar, she assumes he has news about her niece, Mahnaz, who's been missing for three years but is never far from her thoughts. Instead, she's escorted to the site of a drug bust, which incongruously includes an ornately carved wooden sarcophagus with a female mummy inside. Gul is excited by the prospect of examining the artifact further in private, and she insists that only by taking the mummy to the museum will she be able to keep the valuable artifact--and piece of evidence in the drug case--from deteriorating. Acknowledging its value, Akthar provides her with a police escort to protect her from the criminals he's sure will try to get it back. Gul's examination of the sarcophagus and its contents involve analysis of the accompanying cuneiform writing and consultation with several experts. Not long after, Gul is indeed attacked and lands in the hospital, and the sarcophagus is stolen. In this first installment in a new series, Phillips spends considerable time presenting a full picture of her heroine's life and of Karachi's notable features. Gul teaches English at a homeless shelter run by her friend Manora Fernandes and has a contentious relationship with her brother and sister-in-law, Bilal and Sania. Readers are taken to Parsi Colony, a Zoroastrian enclave; the picturesque Cantt railway station; and City Central University. Phillips, who lives in London, was born in Karachi and her attachment to the city is infectious. At length, she offers surprising solutions to both the theft of the sarcophagus and the disappearance of Gul's niece. A deep dive into a fascinating city complete with multiple menacing mysteries.COPYRIGHT(2025) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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March 1, 2025
In a remote cave in western Pakistan, the carnage from a raid on a drug baron reveals a gold-plated mummy whose cuneiform-embellished sarcophagus bears tales of untold riches. For archaeologist Dr. Gul Delani, the opportunity to examine the rare find of a mummy prepared in the Egyptian manner should be a career-defining achievement. Instead, she becomes the drug lord's target. As her inspection progresses, Delani's mind stays dually focused on the three-year-long, unfruitful investigation into the disappearance of her beloved teenage niece, Mahnaz, who is approximately the same age as the young woman preserved before her. The tale of the lost princess, the alleged daughter of King Xerxes, fascinated Mahnaz, but could it also have caused her death? Delani's quest for justice for both young women takes her from Pakistan's desert caves to its sinister street world to its fetid underground sewers. Inspired by an actual antiquities scandal, Phillips introduces a sleuthing archaeologist in a debut thriller and series starter that efficiently combines the historian's thirst for research with a criminologist's pursuit of retribution.COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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