Review: The Return of the Pharaoh by Nicholas Meyer

Synopsis: In Nicholas Meyer's The Return of the Pharaoh, Sherlock Holmes returns in an adventure that takes him to Egypt in search of a missing nobleman, a previously undiscovered pharaoh's tomb, and a conspiracy that threatens his very life.With his international bestseller, The Seven Per Cent Solution, Nicholas Meyer brought to light a previously unpublished case of Sherlock Holmes that reinvigorated the world's interest in the first consulting detective. Now, many years later, Meyer is given exclusive access to Dr. Watson's unpublished journal, wherein he details a previously unknown case.

In 1910, Dr. John Watson travels to Egypt with his wife Juliet. Her tuberculosis has returned and her doctor recommends a stay at a sanitarium in a dry climate. But while his wife undergoes treatment, Dr. Watson bumps into an old friend--Sherlock Holmes, in disguise and on a case. An English Duke with a penchant for egyptology has disappeared, leading to enquiries from his wife and the Home Office.

Holmes has discovered that the missing duke has indeed vanished from his lavish rooms in Cairo and that he was on the trail of a previous undiscovered and unopened tomb. And that he's only the latest Egyptologist to die or disappear under odd circumstances. With the help of Howard Carter, Holmes and Watson are on the trail of something much bigger, more important, and more sinister than an errant lord.

When Dr Watson travels to Egypt for the sake of his wife's health, he runs into his erstwhile partner in crime - Sherlock Holmes. Watson and Holmes had previously gone their separate ways but now their paths have crossed. Holmes lures Watson back to sleuthing when a missing English peer goes missing - and Watson, ever the man of action, launches himself into the investigation.

Egypt, at the turn of the century, was experiencing political turmoil: the Prime Minister Boutros Ghali had been assassinated in Feb 1910; the British had defeated the Egyptian army in 1882 and had taken control of the country (as well as the recently constructed Suez Canal); there was a nationalist uprising (1879 - 1882).

Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer, arrived in Egypt in 1877 as the British Controller-General of Egypt, ostensibly to oversee the gaining of control of Egypt's finances, and eventual incorporation of Egypt into the British Empire. Baring believed that because of Egyptian administrative incompetence, a long occupation was essential to any sort of reform. Moreover, he established a new guiding principle for Egypt known as the Granville Doctrine (named for the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Lord Granville). The doctrine enabled Baring and other British officials to fill the government with those Egyptian politicians that would be cooperative with the British and the power to dismiss Egyptian ministers who refused to accept British directives. Under Baring, British officials were positioned in key ministries and a new system, known as the Veiled Protectorate, was introduced. Essentially, the government was a façade or a puppet of the British.

Added to this political drama was the recent burst of archaeological excavations in Egypt. Egyptology's modern history begins with the invasion of Egypt by Napoleon Bonaparte in the late 18th century and the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799. English Egyptologist William Flinders Petrie (1853–1942) introduced archaeological techniques of field preservation, recording, and excavation to the field. Many highly educated amateurs also travelled to Egypt, including women, and they left accounts of their travels, which revealed learned familiarity with all of the latest European Egyptology. It would be the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter that ignited public interest to fever pitch.

From the 1850s until the 1930s, Egypt's economy was heavily reliant on long-staple cotton, introduced in the mid-1820s and made possible by changes in irrigation practices. Large scale industrialisation had yet to occur, partly due to the tariff restrictions that Britain imposed on Egypt. The isolated industrial ventures initiated by members of Egypt's landed aristocracy, who otherwise channeled their investment into land acquisition and speculation, were nipped in the bud by foreign competition. The few surviving enterprises were owned by foreigners. These enterprises either enjoyed natural protection, as in the case of sugar and cotton processing, or benefited from the special skills that the foreign owners had acquired.

Thus was the state of Egypt at the time that this particular novel was set.  Meyer sets forth a rousing adventure that keeps readers entertained with more corpses littering the pages than the Valley of the Kings.