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4.0 out of 5 stars
Scotland Yard vs. Tutankhamen, Sep 12 2001
I have followed the adventures of M. J. Trow's Sholto Lestrade for some time now. This Lestrade is a bit brighter and charming than the Holmesian version. He is also one of the most accident prone detectives in the entire mystery genre. When he isn't having real accidents - having his feet crushes by women in lifts, losing the end of his nose, getting poisoned, and simply standing in the wrong place - he is busy having verbal accidents. Lestrade is one of those people who is not the least put off by the fact he doesn't understand a word, leading to horrific puns and malapropisms."Clifford Hanger had introduced Gardiner to Lestrade as the foremost philologist of his generation. Lestrade nodded coolly. After all, a man's religion was his own affair." Trow seems to manage to throw at least one of these stomach turners in every few pages. He reminds me a bit of Terry Pratchett, although Trow is more slapstick than Pratchett's needle sharp wit. This is the kind of stuff you either like or you don't, and if you don't, then "Lestrade and the Kiss of Horus" is to be avoided. For the rest of us pagans, the books are fun romps, to be enjoyed and then forgotten. In this story, Detective Chief Inspector Lestrade has been retired from the yard for some time. Even though he is a full three score and ten, he still gets called in on odd cases. This time the case is the Old Fogey Murders, something one has to figure Lestrade has developed some expertise in. However, Lestrade hardly gets his investigation underway when he is called upon by Jack and Tilly Holinshed to investigate the mysterious death of Lord Carnarvon at his digs in Egypt (for the archeologically disadvantaged that's Tutankhamon's tomb). Lestrade, his daughter Emma, and several police officers are flown to Egypt to look into the case. What Lestrade discovers is that he hates to fly, hates the desert and hates camels (who dislike him right back). He also finds several unusual uses for henbane and learns that he should never try to take a gun from a Texan tycoon. Of course, where there's henbane, there's going to be plenty of foul play. The mystery manages to stay one jump ahead of the reader right to the end when Lestrade, as usual, pulls the rabbit out of his hat, solving both the slaughter in the Valley of the Kings and the Old Fogey Murders simultaneously. As I've already indicated one does not read these books because they are great mystery stories but because they are great comic relief. The "Kiss of Horus" is interesting as well as funny, with a whole cast of characters to enjoy and plenty of exotic scenes. As it happens, the series isn't written in any special order, so one can start here as well as anywhere else. Which I certainly encourage you to do.
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