Diadem of Death

Terry (given name: Nefertari, thanks to her father's being an archeologist and renowned Egyptologist) is looking forward to a really normal summer. Her boyfriend Zach, basketball player and graphic artist, will be off to college in the fall leaving her behind to finish high school, and she hopes to spend the intervening months making out with him, lazing about on beaches, working in the local museum with her father, and hanging out with her BFF Maude. But, when you have found an asp-shaped bracelet that was the key to opening an ancient Egyptian coffin, and you have then accepted being given an asp tattoo on your arm that grants you super powers in spite of having a prosthetic leg, "normal" is hard to achieve.

When Terry and her father are invited to return to Egypt to the archeological site where her mother had been killed a couple of years previously in order that they help with the interpretation of a map which might lead to the discovery of Cleopatra's tomb, and also so that the Egyptian prince can express his thanks for their part in the opening of that coffin, "normal" goes out the window. Since the prince's invitation includes a couple of friends, Maude and her journalist boyfriend Fraser go along, and so they all get involved in the troubles on the site. Terry's emotions get in the way of her archeology when she encounters a boy she had met previously in Egypt and finds that her love for Zach doesn't preclude her pulse's speeding up whenever Awad is near! As well, of course, all doesn't go smoothly on the dig either. Creepy things happen which make the workers uneasy; accidents happen that shouldn't; Terry's tattoo vibrates in sympathy with her attempts to find the route to Cleopatra's tomb. And always there is the conflict between "Things are not always as they seem" and "Make it happen" -- two of Cleopatra's mantras.

Writing a sequel to a novel is difficult. Either the author inserts a prologue explaining what has occurred in the first book, or she alludes to prior events, explains things to a third party, inserts explanatory paragraphs, or does all of the above, plus. This is the route Meyers takes, and it is not entirely successful. I had, in fact, read (and reviewed; therefore read fairly carefully) the previous book, The Asp of Ascension, but it was several years ago, and I still found this book confusing to begin with. Gradually things became clearer, but the whole concept of mystical powers invested in these ancient Egyptian artifacts takes a bit of getting used to. However, once one is up to speed with accepting Terry's super-human strength and speed and her weird instinctive understanding of anything associated with Cleopatra, the story of the search for the tomb unfolds with compulsive speed. Interspersed with this main theme is Terry's personal conflict between her love for Zach, which is her link with "normal", and the attraction she feels for Awad and the exciting thrills of the occult and the Illuminati, a secret society attempting to save ancient artifacts from being sold and used to promote wars and hatred around the globe. A balance is not possible; which side of her will triumph? Since I have the third volume of the series in hand, it is obviously not going to be resolved quickly, and the books will continue to race along. If Terry --and her friends who get drawn in, whether they will or not -- manage to survive, we may yet find out whether the asp and the diadem of Cleopatra, both apparently now at the bottom of the ocean, have actually vanished forever. They are gold after all ...