The Green Mummy

About the book

Archie Hope hopes to marry Lucy Kendal, but winning her stepfather's consent requires helping Professor Braddock obtain a rare Peruvian mummy. The professor sends his assistant Sidney Bolton to fetch it from Malta, treating the purchase as an archaeological triumph. What should settle a domestic difficulty instead introduces a disturbing crime, a missing antiquity, and questions about the people connected with its journey. Hume sets the mystery among collectors, prospective lovers, neighbors, and visitors whose financial interests and private histories complicate the evidence. The contrast between Braddock's consuming scholarly enthusiasm and the practical concerns of those around him gives the opening a comic edge. As the investigation develops, the coveted object links local relationships to secrets extending far beyond the household.

• Collecting and obsession
• Hidden histories
• Money and marriage

Why read it

Read it for an antiquarian mystery whose unusual central object disrupts a lively web of domestic interests.

English text