Death on Tour by Janice Hamrick

I first  saw this book on Iliana's blog last year. She mentioned it briefly, and when I saw that it's set in Egypt, I immediately wanted to read it, too. Only my library didn't have a copy. And I wasn't sure I wanted to buy my own copy without knowing if it was any good. So, I asked my library to borrow it through inter-library loan....which sometimes works, and sometimes doesn't. Luckily for me, this time it worked. It just took a lot longer than I thought it would. (But then, considering it came to Utah all the way from Michigan, it's no wonder.) So instead of reading it last year like I planned, I ended up reading it last week.

Was it worth all the hassle?

Well... the mystery itself is actually pretty easy to figure out, so while this book reads fast, it's not super suspenseful. I did like the main character, just not enough to want to read about her again in another book. The side characters were a mixed bunch; I liked some, was annoyed by one in particular, and the rest hardly figured into the book at all. What I loved was getting to revisit all of Egypt's amazing tourist sites from Abu Simbel to Edfu. That was a lot of fun and ended up being my favorite part of the book. All in all, Death on Tour was a 3.5/5 star read for me.

Here's the plot in brief:  Jocelyn Shore is a Texas high school teacher who's always wanted to go to Egypt. She and her cousin, Kyla, are enjoying the pyramids when Millie, one of their fellow travelers, ends up dead. At first, everyone assumes it's a tragic accident, and the group blithely continues on with their tour, but then they find out Millie was murdered. Not only that, but she'd been secretly nosing around the other tour members. Then there's a second murder. And Jocelyn stumbles upon some information that hints at artifact smuggling. She also gets caught up in a case of mistaken identity that could have fatal consequences. (Oh, and she falls in love.)

Happy Reading!