"Night work"; Steve Hamilton
A probation Officer, Joe Thrumble, takes pride in keeping young kids he calls 'Knuckle Heads' out of prison. He always gives the kids the benefit of the doubt and his recommendations to the court are almost always followed. Sometimes, he looses one. Joe lives above a boxing gym and keeps in shape by sparing with boxers. His best friend is a cop. Two years ago, Joe's fiance, Laurel was brutally murdered and Joe has had no personal life until now, he meets a woman , Marlene, on a blind date and they both are attracted to one another.The day after their date, the woman is found murdered. The police bring in two special investigators to investigate because the killing is very similar to another very recent killing. Joe is interviewed because he was the last person to see Marline. Another murder occurs, this time is is some one related to one of Joe's cases; Joe is interrogated again. Then there is another strangulation; Joe's home is searched and evidence causes the police to see Joe as a prime suspect. They even reopen the old murder of Joe's fiance. It is a nightmare for Joe and he knows that he must find out who has set him up and why. This is a well written and conceived mystery.
"The Mummy Case (Amelia Peabody Mysteries)";"Elizabeth Peters
Radcliffe Emerson, the irascible husband of fellow archaeologist Amelia Peabody, has earned the nickname 'Father of Curses'—and in Mazghunah he demonstrates why. Denied permission to dig at the pyramids of Dahshoor, he and Amelia are resigned to excavating mounds of rubble in the middle of nowhere. But before long Amelia, Emerson, and their precocious son, Ramses, find themselves entangled in The Mummy Case . In Cairo, before setting out to the site, Amelia visits an antiquities dealer to inquire about some papyri for her brother-in-law, Walter. At the dealer's shop she interrupts a mysterious-sounding conversation. And then, even more alarmingly, the dealer attempts to refuse to sell her a scrap of papyrus Ramses discovers in the back room. When the dealer is found dead in his shop just a day later, Amelia becomes convinced that foul play is at hand. This is an early chapter in the 'Peabody' series; I read the book in 1985 but it was published again in hard cover about a month ago. Why? I do not know. While Ms Peters who is a PHD graduate in Egyptology can tell a very interesting story about Egypt and the characters who were excavating in the Valley of the Kings a few years before Carter found Tutankhamen (1922), it is her 'Emerson & Peabody' family that she lovingly created that takes center stage in her mysteries and adventures. I am afraid that if some one unfamiliar with her works reads this 'new' book, they might be turned off by a lisping child who can read and translate demonic papyri and can speak Arabic and his doting parents. You have to start at the beginning with this series. You will either like her or not.
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