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The Mummy's Ransom: A Ransom/Charters Mystery
The Mummy's Ransom: A Ransom/Charters Mystery
The Mummy's Ransom: A Ransom/Charters Mystery
Ebook342 pages4 hours

The Mummy's Ransom: A Ransom/Charters Mystery

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

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The Mummy's Ransom by Fred Hunter

A controversial exhibit of Chinchorro mummies is about to open in Chicago at Dolores Tower, the latest building by the equally controversial local developer Louie Dolores. The mummies - dating from 2000 to 7000 BC - are incredibly fragile, making their transportation and display very risky. Even worse, the pending exhibition is being protested by a group who regard the exploitation of the mummies to be desecration of their ancient dead, leading to both tension and excitement over the coming opening.

Lucky for Chicago Police Detective Jeremy Ransom none of this has anything to do with him. He figures as long as he can keep his friend, the elderly Miss Emily Charters, away from the opening, then there won't be a murder and he won't have to get involved. But first there are reports that a mummy is moving around the exhibit at night, then there are death threats against the developer, and when one night, alone in the exhibit, Louie Dolores is attacked by one of the mummies, Ransom is assigned to find out what's going on. With the sharp wits and intelligence of Emily at his beck and call, Ransom has to sort out the truth in what could be his strangest assignment ever before the a volatile situation turns fatal.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 16, 2014
ISBN9781466881624
The Mummy's Ransom: A Ransom/Charters Mystery
Author

Fred Hunter

Fred Hunter is a full-time writer and author of two series--the Ransom/Charters series, an unlikely mix of cozy and police procedural mystery, and the Alex Reynolds series, a barely over-the-top gay mystery series that calls to mind the screwball comedies of the 1930's.

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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Louis Dolores is a man everyone loves to hate. He’s a ruthless businessman, an unfaithful husband and a nasty boss. Plus, he’s managed to cross the Chicago Historical Commission, the curator of a South American museum and an alderman. As loathsome as he is, would anyone dislike him enough to murder him? The answer, of course, is yes.I had high hopes for The Mummy’s Ransom. In addition to an eminently unlikable victim, it promised an unusual duo to solve the murder: police detective Jeremy Ransom and his friend and surrogate grandmother, Emily Chalmers. Stir in some three-thousand-year-old mummies, a band of costumed protestors and a Chicago Tribune front-page headline “The Mummy Lives?” … sounded like a wild ride!Unfortunately, The Mummy’s Ransom didn’t deliver for me and the disappointments were major: too-wordy writing and lack of physical detail about Ransom and Chalmers.I prefer lean writing … and throughout this book, my concentration moved away from the story to the writing – and not in a good way. More than once, I said to myself, “Did someone forget to edit this book?” and mentally put my own blue pencil to it. That’s not an enjoyable reading experience.Although many secondary, even minor characters were described in some detail, the main characters seemed curiously out of focus, with almost no physical description. Although I don’t need characters described to the nth degree, I need something about the main characters: height, hair color, eye color, age … at least what I’d find on a driver’s license. In this book, almost nothing. Upon a cursory second reading, the information about Ransom and Chalmers was still difficult to find. Although this is the eighth book in the series, I don’t feel that’s a reason to leave the main character so ill-defined – I believe each book should stand on its own. Ed McBain has written 50 87th Precinct mysteries and each has contained physical descriptions of Steve Carella, Meyer Meyer, Bert Kling and the rest. I couldn’t help but notice, however, that the author put a great deal of emphasis on the characters’ facial contortions. There was a made whirl of raised eyebrows, pursed lips, furrowed brows and wrinkled noses … more distractions. It’s likely that regular readers of this series have grown to know Ransom and Chalmers over the years. For them, the plot will be a key element and a strong one. The story is straightforward, with all the clues there for a sharp reader to pick up. The author also does a good job of painting pictures of all the suspects – including physical descriptions, personality quirks and possible motivations.For me, however, the negative elements outweighed the positive.First published in Mystery News, April-May 2002 issue.

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The Mummy's Ransom - Fred Hunter

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