Attempted murder, mayhem, and magic while sailing down the Nile to Upper Egypt on a packaged cruise aboard the Queen Nuit. That is not how the trip had been advertised. The brochure read "Fun! Romance! Unravel the deep secrets of the pyramids and other ancient mysteries"! Yes, it was all that, but the travel literature made no mention of terrorists and thieves or the recently unearthed golden statue of Thoth casting its sorcery on my family.

When did the mystery begin? Did it start with the encounter with archaeologist Dr. Barry Short on the Giza Plateau? Or was it triggered by our introduction to former Nazi Hans Bueller, who tricked Madeleine into smuggling a little package to Upper Egypt? Or did the mystery begin in Cairo when Natalie coincidently met up with former boyfriend Stuart, who unbeknownst to her had gone undercover and was on assignment?

Perhaps the magic began all the way back in Ohio when the fortunate fortune cookie was brought to our table along with our dinner check. The Universe began to speak at the Temple of Amun in Abu Simbel when at the mid-winter sunrise a new message was penned in hieroglyphics. What does it mean? What have we learned? What do we know? Will I ever really understand all that we were swept up in?