Daughter of the God-King

Whether readers will enjoy this average romantic historical thriller from Cleeland (Murder in Thrall) set in the early 19th century may hinge on their reaction to heroine Hattie Blackhouse's response to witnessing a violent assault on a friend: "Well%E2%80%94this won't do." Cornwall native Blackhouse has traveled to Egypt from Paris after learning that her Egyptologist parents have been missing for three months. Their discovery of a lost tomb in the Valley of the Kings containing the remains of the "the god-king's daughter," seems to be at the root of the problem. Even those who do not find Hattie's interior monologue unrealistic must still get past this conventionally plotted adventure's ornate prose, in which we're told, for example, that a man "made quiet and efficient love to Hattie in the bottom of a wooden fishing boat while the crickets resonated and the eternal stars of Egypt burned overhead." Agent: Jane Dystel, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. (Nov.)