The Lion of Bastet

Book excerpt: In a very different San Francisco, a detective and her chef partner follow the money amidst gangsters and temple priests dead set against them finding it. Cheryl MacIntyre aids her friend Henutsenu when the Temple of Bastet arrests her for sacrilegious murder. But in Menmenet, the temples outrank the cops. The frustrated MacIntyre puts her own life in danger as she recklessly dives into the middle of a gang war between the local Aztec mob and encroaching Russian mafias from Russkaya Amerika. Shesmu wins the Best New Chef award from the Menmenet R’ames Society. When he tries to collect his award check, he discovers a vast swindle. The con sucks in an old family friend, and Shesmu seeks to help. Then Henet Baket revenue agents step in to accuse Shesmu himself of tax evasion and money laundering. The two cases merge as MacIntyre and Shesmu follow the money. Then things turn dire. Russian gangsters bomb Shesmu’s restaurant. An Aztec crime lord insists MacIntyre help him fend off encroachment by mafias from Russkaya Amerika. Then the Temple of Bastet threatens to execute Henutsenu. Staying out of jail shifts to survival when gangsters, money-laundering tycoons, and corrupt police stage attacks on the pair to obstruct their pursuit of ma’at. The second novel in the Menmenet trilogy of alternate history mysteries, The Lion of Bastet tells a story of corruption and murder in Menmenet, the capital city of the Ta’an-Imenty Republic, a country on the West Coast of North America colonized by the Egyptian Empire in the 18th century.