Help A Bitch Out

HaBO: 1900s Historical Set in Chicago – with Egyptology

This Help a Bitch Out request is from Mizelle, who is looking for a romance of which she can only recall the barest wisps of plot:

 I love the website and podcast and have enjoyed discovering new-to-me authors. I’ve managed to track down most of the older romances I read back when I was on that initial kick. But this one is just vague memories, so even I’m challenged. It’s a single book romance, definitely not a category. I’m even fuzzier on when I picked this up — maybe mid-1990s to 2001-ish.

This was a historical romance set in 1900s-1910s-ish. I remember the date mostly because it was *late* period of what I’d heard was acceptable for historical romance back then. I want to say it was set in Chicago. The heroine had had a love affair in Italy (as you do!) so she is not a virgin anymore. There was an archaeology/Egyptology plot, but I can’t remember if the hero was an archaeologist or just involved/interested in the museum.

Book The Lady's Mummy - an illustrated cover on a very old book with a woman in a bonnet and empire waist dress gesturing to a sarcophagus while a dude in a cravat smiles down at her - and I think he looks condescending but what do I know? He shouldn't mess with her, anyway. She's got a mummy.

It’s not Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody series.

I’m pretty certain it was set in America and the sex was more explicit than Peters’ books.

And I don’t think it was The Lady’s Mummy which looks like the Regency equivalent.

I know it’s vague as all hell, but I’ve seen HaBo work miracles where others give up…

OK, first of all, I had no idea there was a book called The Lady’s Mummy and now I totally want to read it. But, mummies aside, do you recognize the book Mizzelle is describing? Help a Bitch Out!

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  1. Olivia says:

    This isn’t the book, but ran across it while looking and it looks awesomely hilarious “Splendid You” by Lynn Bailey

    HISTORY OR CHEMISTRY? — London, England, 1848. Egyptology has always fascinated Julia Hanson. A self-taught hieroglyphics expert, she is unable to pursue her occupation because of the societal prejudice against her gender. Her only hope is to attract the attention of Dr. Simon Archer, the famed Egyptologist who discovered the tomb of Twelfth Dynasty Princess An-ket, and offer her services.

    Simon is appalled at Julia’s interest in “manly pursuits,” and quickly dismisses her, to her outrage and disappointment. Overnight, she locks herself in the museum exhibiting Simon’s artifacts to expand her Egyptian knowledge. But a flash of lightning awakens the spirit of An-ket, who decides to help Julia win not only Simon’s confidence, but his heart as well…

    Also I don’t know if you’ve done this, maybe you’ll recognize a title, AllRomanceWriters.com lists by time period, and here are the lists for the U.S. early 1900s
    http://historicalromancewriters.com/timeperiods.cfm?genreID=2
    http://historicalromancewriters.com/timeperiods.cfm?genreID=46

  2. Hannah says:

    I have no idea but I totally want to read this!

  3. Aly P says:

    I searched for it, but I couldn’t find something that fit… I can’t wait to see if someone finds the answer

  4. sandyl says:

    It must be by the same person who wrote about twin sisters and pirates! 🙂

  5. MK says:

    It’s no doubt NOT the book you’re looking for, but the description vaguely (ever so vaguely) reminds me of “As You Desire,” by Connie Brockway — though that took place a little earlier (1890) and was actually set IN Egypt.

  6. Rebecca says:

    Can’t help with a title, but the setting suggests that maybe the story circled around the founding of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, by James Henry Breasted. Maybe a little googling with Breasted’s name or with the name “Oriental Institute” or “Haskell Oriental Museum” (its forerunner) will get you some hits. Good luck!

  7. LauraL says:

    I remember during the mid-90s, the Golden Age was considered the latest time period a historical romance could be set. There was a lot of lively discussion on the readers/writers forums on CompuServe (yes, I am old) when a few authors set books during late Victorian times or just before World War I. That said, the storyline sounds familiar to me. I keep thinking of Brenda Joyce but it’s not one of the Francesca Cahill mysteries and it predates that series.

  8. Rebecca says:

    P.S. Not a historical, but Barbara Michaels (aka Elizabeth Peters) has a book called “Search the Shadows” that takes place in and around the Oriental Institute in Chicago, with an Egyptologist heroine, and which has flashbacks to the 1960s, although it’s set in the 1980s (contemporary when it came out). The heroine’s name is Haskell Maloney, and she’s searching for her true father, and someone is trying to kill her. Does that sound right?

  9. Meg says:

    Long shot, but any chance it could be Patricia Gaffney’s Wild at Heart? Some parts fit, if it was anthropology and not archaeology. The setting is right and it was released in the late 90s.

    I hope you find the book you’re looking for!

  10. Julia aka mizzelle says:

    I must be in the same “old” category, LauraL, because I remember the Compuserve romance boards quite well and some of those discussions.

    Rebecca’s suggestion seems in line with my memory of part of the book set in a museum, but maybe it was a university/academic institute…

    Lynn Bailey’s “Splendid You” looks familiar, but I read a lot of the Jove fluffier paranormals back then.

  11. Christine says:

    I know Mizelle said it wasn’t the Amelia Peabody books but it really sounds like the secondary characters from the first book “The Crocodile On The Sandbank.” Evelyn Forbes is the young woman Amelia (the main heroine) meets in Rome. Evelyn is an Englishwoman who has been seduced then abandoned in Italy and Amelia takes her on as her companion on her trip to Egypt. In Egypt they meet two brothers Radcliffe and Walter Emerson who are there to undertake a dig in the desert (on their own dime I think). Evelyn and Walter (the mild, “nicer” brother fall in love).

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