The Mamur Zapt and the Spoils of Egypt - Tapa dura

"Accident? That was no accident!" exclaimed Miss Skinner. "I was pushed... I know a push when I feel one." In fact, the outspoken Miss Skinner has barely escaped falling under a Cairo tram. Captain Owen, as Mamur Zapt - head of British-ruled Cairo's secret police - has been asked to keep an eye on the Boston-bred lady. Though affable, she is one of those people who seems to be everywhere at once.
At first, Owen thinks little of her "accident." Miss Skinner, he surmises, was probably nudged by a fat-tailed Passover sheep - not an uncommon occurrence in Edwardian Cairo. However, he is soon convinced that something more sinister - and more cunning - is at work.
Trying to keep the incorrigible Miss Skinner safe proves a deadly task for Captain Owen; almost as dangerous as trying to placate his Egyptian mistress, the fiercely independent Zeinab. As Owen trails Miss Skinner to exotic excavation sites, he encounters a frightening series of baffling deaths. Now the Mamur Zapt must ponder two mysteries: how to propose marriage to Zeinab without losing face, and how to separate archaeology from plunder... without losing his life.