Shortly after arriving in Cairo for the 1912–1913 excavation season, Amelia Peabody is relaxing in a well-earned bath in her elegant hotel suite when a man with a 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. After discovering a terse note clearly meant for Emerson—“Where were you?”—pushed under their door, Amelia knows that only one person can be that “someone”: 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 a priceless treasure was recently discovered: the iconic Nefertiti bust, crafted in 1345 b.c. by the sculptor Thutmose in tribute to the great beauty of this queen, who was also the chief consort of Pharaoh Akhenaton and stepmother to Tutankhamen. It is one of the most precious Egyptian artifacts ever found . . . and now, it seems, it is unaccountably missing.

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 murderous quest for vengeance will be thwarted, and a diabolical mystery will be solved at last.