Spoils of Egypt

the long version

""Accident? That was no accident!" exclaimed Miss Skinner. "I was pushed ... I know a push when I feel one." In fact, the outspoken Miss Skinner has barely escaped falling under a Cairo tram. Captain Owen, as Mamur Zapt - head of British-ruled Cairo's secret police - has been asked to keep an eye on the Boston-bred lady. Though affable, she is one of those people who seems to be everywhere at once."--BOOK JACKET. "At first, Owen thinks little of her "accident." Miss Skinner, he surmises, was probably nudged by a fat-tailed Passover sheep - not an uncommon occurrence in Edwardian Cairo. However, he is soon convinced that something more sinister - and more cunning - is at work."--Jacket. "Trying to keep the incorrigible Miss Skinner safe proves a deadly task for Captain Owen; almost as dangerous as trying to placate his Egyptian mistress, the fiercely independent Zeinab. As Owen trails Miss Skinner to exotic excavation sites, he encounters a frightening series of baffling deaths. Now the Mamur Zapt must ponder two mysteries: how to propose marriage to Zeinab without losing face, and how to separate archaeology from plunder ... without losing his life."--Jacket.