A Christmas slaying, an Egyptian puzzle, and a night in the home of a stranger-three chillers from the New York Times-bestselling grandmaster of mystery (Publishers Weekly).

A thriller writer is embroiled in a real-life whodunit when a friend drops dead in front of her, with her own hatpin impaled in his back. The violation of a sealed West Bank tomb, its rock walls intact, provides a Thebes investigator with a mystifying conundrum. And two sisters take shelter from a storm in a shuttered old house at the end of a country road . . . only to discover they're not alone.

Settle in with this trio of short stories-available for the first time in a single volume-from one of the most popular mystery writers of all time. With her customary sharp wit, historical expertise, and effortless knack for freezing the blood, Elizabeth Peters never fails to entertain (The Plain Dealer).