DEATH BEFORE WICKET - Poisoned Pen Press (UK)

Kerry Greenwood
for my sister, in case the poor young man really is threatened, not
just scared. So that it isn’t just a fraud and he can rely on it.’
Phryne kissed Dot, unexpectedly.
‘You are a very compassionate young woman,’ she told her.
‘Thank you. I’m sure that it will be most effective.’
Phryne opened the package on her table. In it was a large
book marked ‘Not to be removed from the Research Collection’.
A slip of paper marked a page.
‘The Oxyrrinchus papyrus number 666, translated by
Professor John Bretherton of the University of Sydney’, she
read. A plate showed her an undecorated papyrus with lines of
demotic script, not the hieroglyphics she had vaguely expected.
Of course, he said they were all in Greek. She could not see any
other markings on the paper, apart from the writing which was
clear and flowing, arranged like a verse.
The snake be against him on land,
The crocodile against him in water,
He shall be cursed in eating, in drinking
In love-making, in excreting, in urinating,
In laughing and in crying,
In sailing, in walking
In sleeping, in waking.
He shall have no offering
No bread and no beer
No wine and no oil
No earth shall be dug for him
No remembrance carved for him
When he dies,
When he dies.
‘One thing about the Egyptians, they were thorough,’ she
remarked to Dot. ‘The person who receives this is cursed in
doing absolutely everything, and finally when he dies he will
have no tomb. I wonder what behaviour triggered the curse? Do
we have any learned notes?’