The Serpent on the Crown
Barbara Mertz
 In 1922, the Emersons are excavating at Deir el Medina when a melodramatic visitor delivers a challenge—and a solid gold ancient statuette—to them: find out where it came from and why it brings bad luck to its owners. Emerson, of course, doesn't believe in curses, but he does believe someone has robbed a find of historic proportions. When their visitor turns up dead and her stepchildren disappear, everyone except the Emersons believe the murder is a family affair. Ramses, meanwhile, finds a papyrus which he suspects to be of historic importance, and an assistant who is not all he seems.