The Museum Detective

A wonderfully compelling crime thriller that takes the reader deep into Pakistan in pursuit of a newly discovered mummy, known as the Persian Princess, and based on a real-life scandal that rocked the antiquities world back in 2000. Dr. Gul Delani, archaeologist and expert in ancient art, is woken in the middle of the night and hustled off to a remote part of the country to inspect a recently discovered mummy that came to light as part of a drug bust. Initially, the mummy appears to be authentic, although some of the iconography is unusual, and Gul is eager to bring the discovery back to Karachi and begin to analyze it. But quickly the mummy is claimed by different forces within the country and attracts corruption like bees to honey. The Museum Detective pulls into the broader narrative the story of Gul’s niece, a teenage girl committed to feminism who disappeared several years ago; Gul’s brother, a financial investor who succumbs to corruption; other scholars who have their own agendas; and the wonderful Mrs. Fernandes, who cares for Gul along with scores of children and teens who live on the street. All these characters and subplots come together brilliantly, creating an outcome that is nothing less than shocking. In Gul, Maha Khan Phillips has created an amateur sleuth whom readers will be all too happy to meet again and again.