The Third Grave

When Thomas Ashley is invited to accompany the archaeological expedition of Sir Harold Gregory, he travels beyond the Great Cataract to enter a realm of endless sand, craggy cliffs, and the Egypt of the ancient pharaohs. Treading through the detritus of this vanished civilization, Ashley and his party uncover a New kingdom sarcophagus containing a mummy that has lain sequestered, undisturbed over the aeons, within a rock-cut tomb. While Ashley is translating the hieroglyphic writings that attend this discovery, a scandal erupts over the mummy, involving both a hideous mutilation and the threat of a Pharaonic curse. More ominously, the expedition is visited by a mysterious intruder, Lucian Mallory...As extraordinary a novel as Arkham House has ever published, The Third Grave was conceived by one of the few living fantasists capable of fulfilling the literary requirements of the genre. David Case's first book, published twelve years ago, created a sensation among cognoscenti of the macabre, and this new novel reaffirms his stature as one of the great American masters of horror.