Eater of Souls (Lord Meren Series #4)

by Lynda S. Robinson

Overview

Someone—or something—is slaying innocent persons on the night streets in the royal city of Memphis. Frightened citizens believe it is the gruesome work of the Devourer, the eater of souls, one of the most fearsome gods in the Egyptian pantheon. Even Lord Meren, the Eyes and Ears of Pharaoh, is baffled by this series of horrific crimes whose victims have only one thing in common: the grisly manner of their deaths.

Is the evildoer truly the Devourer, risen from the netherworld, or just a mere mortal? Between Lord Meren and the truth lie dangerous mysteries—in the city's back alleys and in the bosom of his own noble family. . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780345395337
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/28/1998
Series:	Lord Meren , #4
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	4.21(w) x 6.81(h) x 0.65(d)

About the Author

Lynda S. Robinson holds a Ph.D. in anthropology, with a concentration in archaeology, from the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of three earlier Lord Meren mysteries: Murder in the Place of Anubis, Murder at the God's Gate, and Murder at the Feast of Rejoicing. In addition to her crime fiction, she also writes romance novels under the name Suzanne Robinson. She lives in Texas.

Editorial Reviews

When the boy pharaoh Tutankhamen wants to know who poisoned Nefertiti, Great Royal Wife of Akhenaten, Tutankhamen's heretic predecessor on the Egyptian throne, he naturally turns to Lord Meren, his Eyes and Ears. But Meren, just as zealous as his king to root out the mystery behind Nefertiti's death, has his hands full already with a brutal series of killings in Memphis. The victims—an inoffensive farmer, a tavern woman, a thief—don't seem to have anything to do with each other—except that they've all been stunned, slashed and hacked to death with razor-sharp claws, and relieved of their hearts. A terrified witness identifies the killer by her crocodile head, lion's paws, and hippo's hindquarters as the goddess Ammut, the Devouress, Eater of the Dead, against whom there can be no remedy. But when Prince Mugallu, the quarrelsome Hittite king's emissary, becomes the latest victim, Meren finds himself with a potential diplomatic disaster—just at the time that he's trying to repel Lord Reshep, the fawning, narcissistic suitor who's attached himself to Meren's willing daughter Isis. (Now why doesn't the Devouress dispatch him?)

Lord Meren's fourth case (Murder at the Feast of Rejoicing, 1996, etc.) taxes all his skills as investigator, statesman, warrior, householder, and father, while displaying his author's powers of invention and intrigue at their peak—and still leaving plenty of mystery for two promised sequels on Nefertiti's murder.

Kirkus Reviews