Let's set the scene. Professor Braddock is an Egyptology fanatic living in a sleepy English village. His big moment arrives when a rare 'green' mummy is shipped to him from Egypt. He's over the moon. But before he can even properly unwrap his prize, it vanishes from a securely locked room. No broken doors, no obvious way in or out. Just... gone.

The Story

The mystery pulls in everyone around the professor. There's his practical daughter, Lucy, who's more concerned with real life than relics. There's the dashing explorer, Random, who brought the mummy. And then there's the suspicious new servant, Sidney, who seems to know a little too much. As they dig deeper, the plot thickens like London fog. The search for the missing mummy uncovers a separate crime—a massive jewel theft—and suddenly it looks like the two might be connected. The story becomes a game of masks, where secret pasts and disguised identities mean you can't trust anyone's story. It's a race to find the mummy and untangle a web of lies before the truth gets buried for good.

Why You Should Read It

I loved how Hume plays with expectations. You pick up a book called 'The Green Mummy' and think you're in for a supernatural thriller. Instead, you get a brilliantly constructed, earth-bound puzzle box. The fun is in the 'how' and the 'who,' not any ghostly vengeance. The characters are vivid—the obsessed professor is both funny and frustrating, and Lucy is a great, no-nonsense anchor in the chaos. The book is a snapshot of its time, full of that classic late-Victorian/Edwardian fascination with Egypt, but the core of it—greed, deception, and the lengths people go for money—feels totally current.

Final Verdict

This book is a treat for fans of classic detective stories who enjoy a clever, plot-driven mystery over blood and gore. If you like the puzzles of Agatha Christie or the locked-room mysteries of John Dickson Carr, but want a dash of historical flavor (without a history lesson), this is your next read. It's also perfect for anyone who enjoys a mystery where the setting is a character itself, from the stuffy English drawing rooms to the implied adventures of far-off deserts. A genuinely fun, smart page-turner from the golden age of the whodunit.