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Jesperson and Lane #3
The Missing Mummies: Jesperson and Lane, Book 3
Bryant & May meets Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries in this charming Victorian adventure featuring shrieking pits, missing girls, witches and (maybe) a mummy's curse.
Should you find yourself in need of a discreet investigation into any sort of mystery, call on Jesperson and Lane...'Arthur Conan Doyle would have approved,' says George R.R. Martin
Miss Lane is puzzled by Jasper Jesperson's interest in what seems a very minor theft - possibly even a prank - from the storerooms at the British Museum. But London in the 1890s is rife with secret organisations, cults and individuals eager to acquire some of the legendary magic of ancient Egypt. The deeper the two detectives dig, the more hidden crimes they uncover, and the higher the death toll mounts. And at the centre of it all is the 'Mystery Mummy' recently acquired by the museum.
Are the deaths and madness truly caused by a mummy's curse? Or is there a scheming, living villain to be apprehended?
Jesperson and Lane, with their experience of past investigations involving psychic phenomena and supernatural events as well as ordinary human criminality, are surely best placed to find the truth.
Jesperson and Lane, at your service.
Should you find yourself in need of a discreet investigation into any sort of mystery, call on Jesperson and Lane...'Arthur Conan Doyle would have approved,' says George R.R. Martin
Miss Lane is puzzled by Jasper Jesperson's interest in what seems a very minor theft - possibly even a prank - from the storerooms at the British Museum. But London in the 1890s is rife with secret organisations, cults and individuals eager to acquire some of the legendary magic of ancient Egypt. The deeper the two detectives dig, the more hidden crimes they uncover, and the higher the death toll mounts. And at the centre of it all is the 'Mystery Mummy' recently acquired by the museum.
Are the deaths and madness truly caused by a mummy's curse? Or is there a scheming, living villain to be apprehended?
Jesperson and Lane, with their experience of past investigations involving psychic phenomena and supernatural events as well as ordinary human criminality, are surely best placed to find the truth.
Jesperson and Lane, at your service.
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Published January 4, 2024
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About the author
Lisa Tuttle
272 books404 followers(Wife of Colin Murray) aka Maria Palmer (house pseudonym).
Lisa Tuttle taught a science fiction course at the City Lit College, part of London University, and has tutored on the Arvon courses. She was residential tutor at the Clarion West SF writing workshop in Seattle, USA. She has published six novels and two short story collections. Many of her books have been translated into French and German editions.
Lisa Tuttle taught a science fiction course at the City Lit College, part of London University, and has tutored on the Arvon courses. She was residential tutor at the Clarion West SF writing workshop in Seattle, USA. She has published six novels and two short story collections. Many of her books have been translated into French and German editions.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 15, 2023
This is the third book in the Jesperson and Lane series of paranormal detective stories by Lisa Tuttle. I've read and enjoyed the first and second books, and thoroughly enjoyed this installment of the adventures of the Victorian detective duo.
The pair have been professional partners for nearly a year now, and the story starts with Jesperson being quite bored by the lack of interesting work, dismissing potential cases with a Holmesian disregard. And then, he spots a young man approaching the house, and deduces immediately that this could be the next big case.
There follows a riveting and rollocking yarn that takes in a beautiful orphaned girl, mummies aplenty, venomous snakes, a possessed tomcat and even a brief non-appearance by the Prince of Wales.
Recommended.
The pair have been professional partners for nearly a year now, and the story starts with Jesperson being quite bored by the lack of interesting work, dismissing potential cases with a Holmesian disregard. And then, he spots a young man approaching the house, and deduces immediately that this could be the next big case.
There follows a riveting and rollocking yarn that takes in a beautiful orphaned girl, mummies aplenty, venomous snakes, a possessed tomcat and even a brief non-appearance by the Prince of Wales.
Recommended.
May 27, 2024
Although this is set in the Victorian era the plot about some mysterious thefts from the British Museum did feel quite topical. The series is clearly taking a lot of inspiration from another duo of Victorian consulting detectives, although with some added supernatural elements. I thought it was a bit slow at first, but became more compelling towards the end.
June 15, 2023
The first time one of my request was approved on NG was for a Jesperson & Lane novel. I had a pleasant memory of that story and throroughtly enjoyed this one that mixes classic whodunit with reincarnation, Egyptian magic and occult.
There's plenty of twists, there's a sense of doom and I read it as fast as I could.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine
There's plenty of twists, there's a sense of doom and I read it as fast as I could.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine
December 14, 2023
This is the third book in a charmingly engaging series written by Lisa Tuttle, perhaps best known these days – at least to me, anyway - for her refusing of a Nebula Award for Best Short Story in 1982, although she has been writing regularly since. The Curious Affair of the Missing Mummies is an occult Victorian fantasy that ramps up the Sherlock Holmes/Doctor Watson feel - all fog, gas lamps and hansom coaches - with a Weird Tales vibe.
This is not that unusual. Arthur Conan Doyle himself was not unfamiliar with the arcane matters. In his time. As well as writing Sherlock Holmes stories, he also wrote of ghost stories with the museum setting. See Lot 249, (soon to be A BBC Christmas Ghost Story) which bears a deliberate similarity to this story, I think, and The Ring of Thoth, amongst others.
This time they are concerned with strange occult goings on and in particular the disappearance of the recently acquired “Mummy X” from the British Museum. What seems to be a very minor theft – possibly even a prank – from the storerooms at the British Museum soon becomes the beginning of a much bigger crime. Being Victorian London, we are also involved in some of the other obsessions of the day – Egyptology, death, ancient artifacts and secret organisations, cults - with individuals eager to acquire some of the legendary magic of ancient Egypt for nefarious aims.
Where this one is different is that Tuttle uses the setting to raise more contemporary issues. The story is, for example, written from the point of view of a woman, Miss Diane Lane, and is about her business in a Victorian London of the 1890s solving unusual mysteries that others won’t touch. It is purely a platonic relationship, although Lane would like it to be more, I think, but such an unusual situation for the time - as equal partners - allows Tuttle through Lane to comment on the role of women in Victorian society.
Lane herself is a competent character and narrator - willing to help, resourceful, intelligent, and with experience of strange things going on, having spent years working in the Society for Psychical Research. She is an ideal foil for the intelligent ‘man of action’ type that is Jasper. What makes her interesting, though, is that she's not without her own issues, for as shown here she can be quick to judge others and is a little hampered, though not unduly so, by a developing unrequited romance between her and Jasper. Their relationship is complex and yet seems real.
As this is the third book in a series. there are recurring characters that readers may have met previously. Lane meets again Violet Dawes, a psychic medium who believes herself to be the vessel through which Egyptian princess, Seshemetka, speaks. This comes in handy in this story. Other recurring characters are of less importance to this particular plot.
Generally, though, the plot is nicely built from the start as the case becomes increasingly complex. With mounting tension towards the end, the book only really lets itself down with a fairly meaningless trip from London to Scotland at the end, and the fact that some characters, carefully developed along the way, are all-too-quickly and conveniently signed off at the conclusion. Earlier in the novel there's also a glimpse into Jesperson's past, which reveals an important plot point but feels a little bit too convenient.
Certainly, more amenable and more credible than some of these types of stories I've read recently, The Curious Affair of the Missing Mummies is great fun and fairly plausible for the most part. This Holmesian romp with occult overtures reads very well, as long as you don’t think too much about its conclusion.
This is not that unusual. Arthur Conan Doyle himself was not unfamiliar with the arcane matters. In his time. As well as writing Sherlock Holmes stories, he also wrote of ghost stories with the museum setting. See Lot 249, (soon to be A BBC Christmas Ghost Story) which bears a deliberate similarity to this story, I think, and The Ring of Thoth, amongst others.
This time they are concerned with strange occult goings on and in particular the disappearance of the recently acquired “Mummy X” from the British Museum. What seems to be a very minor theft – possibly even a prank – from the storerooms at the British Museum soon becomes the beginning of a much bigger crime. Being Victorian London, we are also involved in some of the other obsessions of the day – Egyptology, death, ancient artifacts and secret organisations, cults - with individuals eager to acquire some of the legendary magic of ancient Egypt for nefarious aims.
Where this one is different is that Tuttle uses the setting to raise more contemporary issues. The story is, for example, written from the point of view of a woman, Miss Diane Lane, and is about her business in a Victorian London of the 1890s solving unusual mysteries that others won’t touch. It is purely a platonic relationship, although Lane would like it to be more, I think, but such an unusual situation for the time - as equal partners - allows Tuttle through Lane to comment on the role of women in Victorian society.
Lane herself is a competent character and narrator - willing to help, resourceful, intelligent, and with experience of strange things going on, having spent years working in the Society for Psychical Research. She is an ideal foil for the intelligent ‘man of action’ type that is Jasper. What makes her interesting, though, is that she's not without her own issues, for as shown here she can be quick to judge others and is a little hampered, though not unduly so, by a developing unrequited romance between her and Jasper. Their relationship is complex and yet seems real.
As this is the third book in a series. there are recurring characters that readers may have met previously. Lane meets again Violet Dawes, a psychic medium who believes herself to be the vessel through which Egyptian princess, Seshemetka, speaks. This comes in handy in this story. Other recurring characters are of less importance to this particular plot.
Generally, though, the plot is nicely built from the start as the case becomes increasingly complex. With mounting tension towards the end, the book only really lets itself down with a fairly meaningless trip from London to Scotland at the end, and the fact that some characters, carefully developed along the way, are all-too-quickly and conveniently signed off at the conclusion. Earlier in the novel there's also a glimpse into Jesperson's past, which reveals an important plot point but feels a little bit too convenient.
Certainly, more amenable and more credible than some of these types of stories I've read recently, The Curious Affair of the Missing Mummies is great fun and fairly plausible for the most part. This Holmesian romp with occult overtures reads very well, as long as you don’t think too much about its conclusion.
December 29, 2023
I think The Missing Mummies appeared in hardback last summer, and I missed it then, but that has simply made the timing better for a story focussing on thefts from the British Museum. And one might argue, on somewhat unethical collecting and conservation policies although I suppose to do might though be seen as anachronistic because of course these stories are set in the high 19th century when the British Empire had little regard for such niceties.
The story opens with the the duo of Jesperson and Lane engaged to investigate the theft of a few minor artifacts from the Museum. To begin with, their task seems fairly straightforward - one of recovering the missing pieces without tipping off Mr Budge, the chief curator, that anything has gone missing. But it seems these are not the first thefts. Given, though, that casual attitude to acquisitions - and the full blown market in looted antiquities which feeds it - it's soon clear that it can be hard to tell what has actually been stolen. Complications pile up affecting Museum politics, with more significant items found to have gone astray, a death, and the involvement of a collector who seems to have a link to Jesperson's childhood in Egypt...
I enjoy these books, which are told from the perspective of Miss Lane: at first sight a Doctor Watson to Jespersen's Sherlock Holmes, but in reality much more than that, since her unprivileged position (a woman! Not wealthy!) actually gives her many insights - and also reasons to check the impetuous Jesperson. Here, it aids her in befriending Matilda, a young heiress whose view of life, marriage and friendship Lane decides needs some amendment (beginning with her relationship with that collector, referred to as her "uncle", and proceeding to address the idea that marriage should be the peak of her expectations in life). What follows is the development of a complex relationship. You can't really conclude that the two women like each other that much, and there are story elements going on which it would be spoilery to reveal and which mean not everything is what it seems. But Lane acts - how can I put this? - she acts with a sense of responsibility towards a young and vulnerable person which is refreshing to see and the twists and turns of which are enjoyable to follow. (As is Jesperson's evident infatuation with the young and pretty Matilda - do a see a little jealousy from Miss Lane? Perhaps her motives are not completely unmixed...)
The book, like its predecessors, treads the line between a rational explanation of events (leading tom a to and fro business with the museum to track down what is missing, who had access to it and where it all went) and the possibility of an extra dimension to things, represented by Violet Dawes, a psychic who has appeared before in the series. Given Miss Lane's previous experience in this regard - her last employer was a bogus medium, but Jesperson and Lane have encountered the unexplained in previous adventures - I felt that things were perhaps a bit compartmentalised here with the earlier part of the book proceeding on the former lines but not entertaining the latter at all - until things realign. I felt perhaps our heroes, and especially Miss Lane, might have been slightly less sceptical at the start and more so more so later on: but that's a minor point really, perhaps reflecting that they are a little slow to recognise what's going on.
Once they do, however, the story really takes wings with a potent threat taking shape - a deadly threat to Matilda, and perhaps a wider one too. Plenty of action follows with a dash by train in the middle of the night and a combination of skills needed to address the danger - Jesperson's practicality, Lane's courage and empathy, Violet's esoteric abilities and the Egyptian learning of the redoubtable pagan Brown, a scholar who I hope we will see more of in future.
In all, a fun adventure.
The story opens with the the duo of Jesperson and Lane engaged to investigate the theft of a few minor artifacts from the Museum. To begin with, their task seems fairly straightforward - one of recovering the missing pieces without tipping off Mr Budge, the chief curator, that anything has gone missing. But it seems these are not the first thefts. Given, though, that casual attitude to acquisitions - and the full blown market in looted antiquities which feeds it - it's soon clear that it can be hard to tell what has actually been stolen. Complications pile up affecting Museum politics, with more significant items found to have gone astray, a death, and the involvement of a collector who seems to have a link to Jesperson's childhood in Egypt...
I enjoy these books, which are told from the perspective of Miss Lane: at first sight a Doctor Watson to Jespersen's Sherlock Holmes, but in reality much more than that, since her unprivileged position (a woman! Not wealthy!) actually gives her many insights - and also reasons to check the impetuous Jesperson. Here, it aids her in befriending Matilda, a young heiress whose view of life, marriage and friendship Lane decides needs some amendment (beginning with her relationship with that collector, referred to as her "uncle", and proceeding to address the idea that marriage should be the peak of her expectations in life). What follows is the development of a complex relationship. You can't really conclude that the two women like each other that much, and there are story elements going on which it would be spoilery to reveal and which mean not everything is what it seems. But Lane acts - how can I put this? - she acts with a sense of responsibility towards a young and vulnerable person which is refreshing to see and the twists and turns of which are enjoyable to follow. (As is Jesperson's evident infatuation with the young and pretty Matilda - do a see a little jealousy from Miss Lane? Perhaps her motives are not completely unmixed...)
The book, like its predecessors, treads the line between a rational explanation of events (leading tom a to and fro business with the museum to track down what is missing, who had access to it and where it all went) and the possibility of an extra dimension to things, represented by Violet Dawes, a psychic who has appeared before in the series. Given Miss Lane's previous experience in this regard - her last employer was a bogus medium, but Jesperson and Lane have encountered the unexplained in previous adventures - I felt that things were perhaps a bit compartmentalised here with the earlier part of the book proceeding on the former lines but not entertaining the latter at all - until things realign. I felt perhaps our heroes, and especially Miss Lane, might have been slightly less sceptical at the start and more so more so later on: but that's a minor point really, perhaps reflecting that they are a little slow to recognise what's going on.
Once they do, however, the story really takes wings with a potent threat taking shape - a deadly threat to Matilda, and perhaps a wider one too. Plenty of action follows with a dash by train in the middle of the night and a combination of skills needed to address the danger - Jesperson's practicality, Lane's courage and empathy, Violet's esoteric abilities and the Egyptian learning of the redoubtable pagan Brown, a scholar who I hope we will see more of in future.
In all, a fun adventure.
August 27, 2024
Enjoyed all three of the Jesperson and Lane series. Lisa Tuttle takes Victorian beliefs about psychic abilities, faeries, possession, reincarnation, etc. seriously.
July 15, 2023
This series continues to be just not quite as good as I want it to be. Victorian-era sleuthing from a sharp brain and a more down-to-earth companion - check. Added supernatural goings on? Sounds great! Alas, it straddles the line of working and being a little bit jarring.
My full review is up on my blog, LittleFrogScribbles.
My full review is up on my blog, LittleFrogScribbles.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews