The Pyramid Murders has been one of the most enjoyable books to write, not least because I was able to go to Cairo and walk where Clara would walk. My erstwhile companion was Helen Fairmaner and although we didn’t track down a murderer like Clara and Bella, we did have an enormous amount of fun! Thank you, Helen.
Thanks too to our guides in Egypt: Mo, Mohammed and Abdul. Mo for his astounding knowledge of the Cairo Museum collection, and help tracking Clara’s route to and from the university and Shepheard’s Hotel, Mohammed for fascinating insights into Saqqara and Giza (as well as telling me about his grandfather who worked on the old European digs), and Abdul for being such a charming companion on our dinner cruise.
Thank you too to the Women of Egypt Facebook Group for alerting me to Dr Naima El-Ayoubi as one of the first female students of the Egyptian University and Engy M. Donia who translated the gist of Dr El-Ayoubi’s article from Arabic to English for me.
I am also indebted to historical crime author and archaeologist Dr Jason Monaghan for help in considering how Clara might have discovered the mummy was not as old as it should have been, as well as forensic anthropologist Dr Tim Thompson of Teesside University for his further insight into what tests might be done.
I owe my choice of aircraft in this book to historical novelist and aviation engineer Lindsay Rumbold, who also helped me figure out how far Larry could fly before refuelling.
My gratitude goes once more to my agent Sara Keane who talked me into giving Clara a cat and to my former commissioning editor at Embla, Cara Chimirri, to whom the Agatha Christie cameo is dedicated. Thanks, as always, to the whole team at Embla who have helped bring this book to its eager readers.
And finally, I could not do any of this without the support of my family. Thank you, Rod and Megan.