Jessica Tregarth went to England to visit her grandfather: an invitation which surprised and pleased her. The only link she had with her dead father’s family was an antique ring he had brought with him to America. This would be a chance to learn more about who she is; it would be fun. She’s barely off the boat before the chase begins and Jess finds herself playing a deadly game of cat-and-mouse through Cornwall, helped by David Randall, the ingenious author of a series of paperback gothic novels. But even Randall’s cleverness may not be enough—the couple doesn’t know what the pursuers want...and it is not the obvious.

Meet art historian Vicky Bliss, She is as beautiful as she is brainy—with unassailable courage, insatiable curiosity, and an expertise in lost museum treasures that often leads her into the most dangerous of situations. A missing masterwork in wood, the last creation of a master carver who died in the violent tumult of the sixteenth century, may be hidden in a medieval German castle in the town of Rothenburg. The prize has called to Vicky Bliss, drawing her and an arrogant male colleague into the forbidding citadel and its dark secrets. But the treasure hunt soon turns deadly. Here, where the blood of the long forgotten damned stains ancient stones, Vicky must face two equally perilous possibilities. Either a powerful supernatural evil inhabits this place. . .or someone frighteningly real is willing to kill for what Vicky is determined to find.

What did it all mean? The note with the hieroglyphs was found in the pocket of a man lying dead in an alley. The only other item of interest was a piece of jewelry, a reproduction of the Charlemagne talisman. It was good, so good that Vicky Bliss thought she was being shown the real jewel. The goldwork was done by a master; the jewels weren’t glass but top-quality synthetic stones. What did it mean? Vicky didn’t know … yet. But on the sunbathed streets and in the moonlit courtyards of Rome, she was going to find out—if the dangerously exciting young Englishman didn’t get in her way…

One perfect red rose, a one-way ticket to Stockholm, and a cryptic "message" consisting of two Latin words intrigue art historian Vicky Bliss—as they were precisely intended to do.Beautiful, brilliant and, as always, dangerously inquisitive, Vicky recognizes the handiwork of her former lover, the daring jewel thief John Smythe. So she takes the bait, eagerly following Smythe's lead in the hope of finding a lost treasure. But the trail begins at a priceless fifth century chalice which will place Vicky at the mercy of a gang of ruthless criminals who have their eyes on an even more valuable prize. And the hunt threatens to turn deadly on a remote island, where a captive Vicky Bliss must lead an excavation into the distant past—and where digging too deep for the truth could dig her own grave.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words But the photograph art historian Vicky Bliss has just received gives rise to a thousand questions instead. A quick glance at the blood-stained envelope is all the proof she needs that something is horribly wrong. The picture itself is familiar: a woman adorned in the gold of Troy. Yet this isn't the famous photograph of Frau Schliemann—no, this picture is contemporary. The gold, as Vicky and her fellow academics know, disappeared at the end of World War II. Now this circle of experts is gathered for a festive Bavarian Christmas. All of them—including the mysterious John Smythe and a very determined killer...

An assistant curator of Munich's National Museum, Vicky Bliss is no expert on Egypt, but she does have a Ph.D. in solving crimes. So when an intelligence agency offers her a luxury Nile cruise if she'll help solve a murder and stop a heist of Egyptian antiquities, all 5'11" of her takes the plunge. Vicky suspects the authorities really want her to lead them to her missing lover, the art thief and master of disguises she knows only as "Sir John Smythe." And right in the shadow of the Sphinx she spots him. . . with his new flame. Vicky is so furious at this romantic stab-in-the-back, not to mention the sudden arrival of her meddling boss, Herr Dr. Schmidt, that she may overlook a danger as old as the pharaohs and as unchanging. . . a criminal who hides behind a mask of charm while moving in for the kill.

Who stole the mummy of King Tut? The brazen crime bears the earmarks of one Sir John Smythe, the international art thief. In fact, John Tregarth is the longtime significant other of Vicky Bliss. Innocent, he vows to clear his name by hunting down the true criminal. Vicky loses faith. But her boss, Munich Museum director Anton Z. Schmidt, "the finest swordsman in Europe", pays their luxurious way from London to Munich then Cairo, also to defend his own reputation. Once Schmidt deflects his new paramour Suzi, who only wants his body to spy on John, the entourage swells with the Egyptian officials responsible, cousins - wealthy Ashraf and poorer Feisel - plus mummy-expert mistress Saida. The Arab security guard, then a female middleman, both turn up dead. Dead hands, from her and from Tut, separately accompany notes, his is a ransom demand for millions. Kidnappers, murderers, and danger dog their way.