The Assassins of Isis

by Paul Doherty

Reviewed by Coral

During the ceremony to formalize a peace treaty between Egypt and the Libyan chieftains, three Egyptian scribes die after drinking from the ceremonial cup. Elsewhere, a wealthy husband and wife both die in their pool even though both were good swimmers. Worse, a prisoner who confessed to a string of poisonings has escaped from his desert prison. Has he returned to wreck more horror on the city? Or was he telling the truth when he originally proclaimed his innocence? Is the real Poisoner of Ptah still out there?

Though I enjoyed the book, it wasn't quite up to the level of other books in this series.

It seemed a little repetitive, like the same facts were being repeated over and over. And I guess, to a certain extent, detectives have to ask the same questions and look at the same evidence over and over to try and see something new, but it just felt like too much.

A lot of the deductive reasoning that Amerotke used to solve the murders was summed up near the very end of the book. Usually I like to have the characters sort of figure it out as the book unfolds, but we didn't get any of that in this book. Near the end we got Amerotke closing himself for a few days, then showing up with the answers. No insight on how he came to his conclusions.

Also, near the end of the story, he comes across some information concerning the movements of some of Egypt's enemies that seems important to pass onto the Pharaoh right away, but he doesn't and I don't know why. Then when he talks to her commander, it seems they already know, when there was no possible way they could know!

That being said, the solution to the mystery did surprise me - but as I always say, I am no good at guessing or figuring these things out. Everything seemed to be wrapped up nicely.

I just wish it had been a bit more enjoyable.

Grade: B