Hunt for the Golden Scarab

Twelve year-old Sim enjoys playing the piano and practising martial arts with his Mum, Callidora, who teaches them, but her main job for the last two year is caretaker of the Sir John Soane’s Museum in London, showing the eccentric collector’s art, archaeological finds and other fascinating objects, and he also enjoys helping her by cleaning all the glass in the display cabinets, absorbing information as he polishes. He and his friend Nelson have a reputation at school as nerds, but of course they are far more than that.  Sim is aware that his Mum is often on edge, and when two strangers appear in the Museum after closing time, Sim is astonished to find that his Mum does not fight but plays a tune that opens a door and transports them back to Sir John’s own time. It turns out that she is a Time Key, a time traveller, but so are the hunters from the Council of Keys, and Sim realises why they move quite often- she doesn’t follow their rules. Sir John helps them to hide, and he distracts the hunters, but they have to take refuge in the hidden basement of Liberty’s department store with her untrustworthy brother, Emmett, and his daughter Jeopardy, who is about Sim’s age, and the only one of his children who is a Time Key, and therefore useful.

Everyone is looking for the golden scarab of Nefertiti, rumoured to have the secret of eternal life, but initially no-one knows where her tomb is. Callidora works it out, and, suitably dressed, they go back in time. Jeopardy helps to lay the body out for burial, which is fascinating in itself to those interested in mummification, and Sim meets the young Tut Ankh Amun. The hunters are not far behind, though, and there is an exciting chase. Without revealing spoilers, the story is only partly resolved, and this book is scheduled to be the first in a new series.

M.G.Leonard has been to Egypt, and she is pictured at the back of the book in an Egyptian headdress at the tomb of the young king. Bestselling author of Beetle Boy, she brings together here her loves of history and music, and the story is well illustrated by Manuel Sumberac.