She Who Sleeps

Sax Rohmer trades his usual master-criminal for Egyptian mystery in this late thriller that moves between Manhattan drawing rooms and the banks of the Nile. A wealthy collector’s son becomes fixated on the image of a sleeping priestess, and an elaborate scheme forms around an ancient tomb, a beautiful woman, and the possibility that the dead do not stay quiet. Rohmer keeps the machinery of suspense turning with impostures, buried treasure, and a whiff of the supernatural that he is careful never to fully explain. It is lighter and more romantic than the Fu Manchu books, closer to a caper than a horror tale, and it carries the exotic glamour readers of the day expected from him. Offered here as a free PDF and EPUB edition.