Elizabeth Peters: The Laughter of Dead Kings (USA 2009)

From the Publisher:
Who stole one of Egypt's most priceless treasures? The Egyptian authorities and Interpol believe they know the identity of the culprit: "Sir John Smythe," the suave and dangerously charming international art thief who is, in fact, John Tregarth, the longtime significant other of famed art expert and sometime sleuth Vicky Bliss.

But John swears he is retired -- not to mention innocent -- and he vows to clear his name. With complete faith in her man's integrity, Vicky takes a hiatus from her job at a leading Munich museum and follows him to the Middle East. But dark days and myriad dangers await John, Vicky, and her employer, the rotund gourmand and insatiable adventurer Herr Doktor Anton Z. Schmidt. And the stakes are elevated considerably when a ransom note arrives accompanied by a grisly memento -- because now it appears that murder has been added to the equation.

Elizabeth Peters: The Laughter of Dead Kings. A Vicky Bliss Novel of Suspense. Harper, ISBN 9780061246258 (September, 2009), 400 p., $9.99.

Elizabeth Peters: The Laughter of Dead Kings (UK 2009)

From the Publisher:
The heist of the century has taken place in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, and Vicki's on/off boyfriend, Sir John Smythe, is a prime suspect. Despite his insistence that he is no longer in the business of stealing antiquities and art objects, even Vicky isn't one hundred percent certain he has not fallen back into his old habits. Pursued by Interpol, the Egyptian police, rival gangs of illicit antiquities thieves, and (worse of all) Vicky's inquisitive boss, Anton Z. Schmidt, she and John set out on a wild chase across Europe and Egypt in an attempt to clear him by finding the real culprits and retrieving the stolen object.

Elizabeth Peters: The Laughter of Dead Kings. A Vicky Bliss Murder Mystery. Robinson Publishing, ISBN 9781845299019 (April, 2009), 352 p., £7.99.

Elizabeth Peters: The Laughter of Dead Kings (UK 2008)

From the Publisher:
The heist of the century has taken place in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, and Vicki's on/off boyfriend, Sir John Smythe, is a prime suspect.

Despite his insistence that he is no longer in the business of stealing antiquities and art objects, even Vicky isn't one hundred percent certain he has not fallen back into his old habits. Pursued by Interpol, the Egyptian police, rival gangs of illicit antiquities thieves, and (worse of all) Vicky's inquisitive boss, Anton Z. Schmidt, she and John set out on a wild chase across Europe and Egypt in an attempt to clear him by finding the real culprits and retrieving the stolen object.

Elizabeth Peters: The Laughter of Dead Kings. A Vicky Bliss Murder Mystery. Constable & Robinson, ISBN 9781845297084 (September, 2008), 408 p., £18.99.

Elizabeth Peters: The Laughter of Dead Kings (USA 2008)

From the Publisher:
For the first time in more than a decade, New York Times bestselling Grand Master Elizabeth Peters brings beautiful, brainy Vicky Bliss back into the spotlight for one last investigation. But this time the peerless art historian and sleuth will be detecting in Amelia Peabody territory, searching for solutions to more than one heinous offense in the ever-shifting sands of Egypt's mysterious Valley of the Kings.

Who stole one of Egypt's most priceless treasures? That is the question that haunts the authorities after a distinguished British gentleman with an upper-crust accent cons his way past a security guard and escapes into the desert carrying a world-famous, one-of-a-kind historic relic. But the Egyptian authorities and Interpol believe they know the identity of the culprit. The brazen crime bears all the earmarks of the work of one “Sir John Smythe,” the suave and dangerously charming international art thief who is, in fact, John Tregarth, the longtime significant other of Vicky Bliss. But John swears he is retired -- not to mention innocent -- and he vows to clear his name by hunting down the true criminal.

Vicky's faith in her man's integrity leaves her no choice but to take a hiatus from her position at a leading Munich museum and set out for the Middle East. Vicky's employer, the eminent Herr Doktor Anton Z. Schmidt, rotund gourmand and insatiable adventurer, decides to join the entourage.

But dark days and myriad dangers await them in this land of intriguing antiquity. Each uncovered clue seems to raise even more questions for the intrepid Vicky -- the most troubling being, Where is John going during his increasingly frequent and unexplained absences? And the stakes are elevated considerably when a ransom note arrives accompanied by a grisly memento intended to speed up negotiations -- because now it appears that murder most foul has been added to the equation.

Elizabeth Peters: The Laughter of Dead Kings. A Vicky Bliss Novel of Suspense. William Morrow, ISBN 9780061246241 (August, 2008), 336 p., $25.95.