Mummy Fiction Books by Anne Rice, Bram Stoker, R.L. Stine, more

“You haven’t found all the answers yet…”

After a couple years of research, archaeologists in Egypt recently discovered hundreds of tombs with mummies. A pyramid identifying a previously unknown queen was found at an archaeological site near Cairo, Egypt, believed to be from an era dating 1550-1070 B.C. Among the finds, archaeologists discovered 300 coffins with mummies in surprisingly good condition.

In monster fiction, mummies are a big deal. Examples of the undead walking in from ancient times, mummies have become as important to lists of classic monsters as Frankenstein’s Monster or Dracula. While there is no single literary work inventing the mummy—in the same way that specific novels introduced Frankenstein’s Monster and Dracula—the surprising truth is how many examples of mummy stories there are.

The Mummy: 13 Alternate Print Versions

1) The Mummy: A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century by Jane Webb (1827)

Frankenstein wasn’t the only classic horror novel created by a woman.

The latest volume in the Horror Writers Association’s Haunted Library of Horror Classics, the novel The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century, written by Jane Webb, concerns the Egyptian mummy of Cheops, brought back to life in the year 2126. The three-volume novel—describing a future filled with advanced technology—was the first English-language story to feature a reanimated mummy.

Within a decade of the 1818 publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, 17-year-old Englishwoman Jane Webb Loudon invented another foundational work of science fiction with The Mummy! She took up the theme of reanimation, moved it three hundred years into the future, and applied it to Cheops, an ancient Egyptian mummy.

Unlike Shelley’s horrifying, death-dealing monster, this revivified creature bears the wisdom of the ages and is eager to share his insights with humanity. Cheops boards a hot-air balloon and travels to 22nd-century England, where he sets about remedying the ills of a corrupt government.

In recounting Cheops’ attempts to put the futuristic society to rights, the young author offers a fascinating portrait of the preoccupations of her own era as well as some remarkably prescient predictions of technological advances. The Mummy! envisions a world in which automatons perform surgery, undersea tunnels connect England and Ireland, weather-control devices provide crop irrigation, and messages are transmitted with the speed of cannonball fire. This pioneering tale offers an engaging mix of comedy, politics, and science fiction.

“Like Mary Shelley, in whose footsteps she followed,” reports Fine Books Magazine, “author Jane Webb (1807-1858) was a young Englishwoman with an incredible imagination. The Mummy is now considered a foundational work of science fiction—complete with a reanimated mummy and wild, ‘futuristic’ inventions, set in 2126.”

Fine Books Magazine then reprints a section from a previous article: “Webb did not portray the future as an only slightly modified version of her own day, as do some early science fiction works, but introduces changes in technology, society, and even fashion. Her court ladies wear trousers, but hair ornaments of controlled flame are not yet common, I think. Surgeons and lawyers in her future world can be steam-powered automatons, and a kind of internet is predicted, while the revivification of the mummy is dealt with in scientific terms—galvanic shock rather than incantation.”

Buy The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Haunted Library Horror Classics) from Amazon

Review

“The latest obscure reissue in the Horror Writers Association’s Haunted Library series, this sprawling, far-future satirical novel was first published in 1827 and occupies the same literary terrain between the late gothic and early science fiction as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Readers interested in the early evolution of the sci-fi genre should check this out.” (Publishers Weekly)

Review: The Mummy! | Sine Peril

2) Classic short stories (1840-1946)

It is crazy to see how many prominent classic authors dipped their pens in the ink and wrote a short story involving mummies…

“The Mummy’s Foot” by Théophile Gautier (1840)—This horror short story by the French writer shares what happens when a man goes to a curiosity shop and buys the four-thousand-year-old foot of an Egyptian princess. Included in the anthology Fireside Horror Stories About Mummies and Curses: An Anthology of Egyptian Tales.
“Some Words with a Mummy” by Edgar Allan Poe (1845)—In Poe’s satirical short story, a doctor and his friend unwrap a mummy, zap him with electricity to bring him to life, then they all sit down for cigars, brandy, and conversation. “Poe’s humor still revolves around a revivified corpse,” noted Edward Pettit at Rosenbach, “so just because he loved to tell a funny story, doesn’t take away his iconic macabre status.” Poe’s macabre-but-funny story “Some Words with a Mummy” is included in the anthology Fireside Horror Stories About Mummies and Curses: An Anthology of Egyptian Tales.
“Lost in a Pyramid; or, The Mummy’s Curse” by Louisa May Alcott (1869)—An influential example of early “mummy’s curse” stories, a man returns from an Egyptian expedition with a mysterious box of scarlet seeds. He warns his fiancée that the story of their origin will haunt her, but her curiosity presents a problem. Included in the anthology Fireside Horror Stories About Mummies and Curses: An Anthology of Egyptian Tales.
Two stories from Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Ring of Thoth” (1890) and “Lot No. 249” (1894)—In “The Ring of Thoth,” an Egyptian priest condemned to live thousands of years can’t join his fiancée in the afterlife—until an elixir is discovered that might reunite them. In “Lot No. 249,” an Egyptology student who owns many ancient Egyptian artefacts (including a mummy) causes trouble, in the first story to feature a reanimated mummy that’s dangerous. Both stories appear in the anthology Fireside Horror Stories About Mummies and Curses: An Anthology of Egyptian Tales.
“The Whispering Mummy” by Sax Rohmer (1919)—When a notable Egyptologist is found unconscious in his home with a mysterious scratch on his chest, his daughter calls on friends, colleagues, and an investigator to help. “The Whispering Mummy” is included in the anthology Fireside Horror Stories About Mummies and Curses: An Anthology of Egyptian Tales.
“Smith and the Pharaohs” by H. Rider Haggard (1921)—An Egyptologist sleeping in the Cairo Museum dreams that he’s on trial with the ghosts of Egypt’s pharaohs and queens. His crime? Robbing their graves. But is it just a dream? Included in the anthology Fireside Horror Stories About Mummies and Curses: An Anthology of Egyptian Tales.
“Imprisoned with the Pharaohs” by Harry Houdini and H. P. Lovecraft (1924)—This first-person story finds escape artist Harry Houdini kidnapped by an Egyptian tour guide, and thrown down a deep hole near the Great Sphinx. Trying to get out, Houdini runs into the real-life deity who inspired the Sphinx. Buy “Imprisoned with the Pharaohs” from Amazon.
“The Eyes of the Mummy” by Robert Bloch (1938)—Features an American trapped in a tomb when his consciousness is transferred into a mummy’s body—and now the mummy is living outside in the man’s body. “The Eyes of the Mummy” is available in the collection The Best of Robert Bloch: Volume 3 from Amazon.
“The Vengeance of Ai” by August Derleth and Mark Schorer (1939)—The ancient goddesses of the Chaldeans still exact tribute…
At least three stories from Algernon Blackwood, including “The Nemesis of Fire” (1908), “A Descent into Egypt” (1914), and “The Wings of Horus” (1914). Blackwood created one of the great occult detectives with Dr. John Silence, whose case “The Nemesis of Fire” features an Egyptian mummy. Two of Blackwood’s mummy stories are part of the anthology Fireside Horror Stories About Mummies and Curses: An Anthology of Egyptian Tales. You can also read “A Descent into Egypt” online here, can read “The Nemesis of Fire” online here, and can read “The Wings of Horus” online here.
A few short stories from Seabury Quinn (creator of occult detective Jules de Grandin) including “The Grinning Mummy” (1926), “The Bleeding Mummy” (1932), “The Dead-Alive Mummy” (1935), and “The Man in Crescent Terrace” (1946). “The Grinning Mummy” is in The Horror on the Links: The Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin, Volume One. “The Bleeding Mummy” is available in The Dark Angel: The Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin, Volume Three (and also The Best of Jules de Grandin: 20 Classic Occult Detective Stories). “The Dead-Alive Mummy” appears in A Rival from the Grave: The Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin, Volume Four on Amazon. “The Man in Crescent Terrace” appears in Black Moon: The Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin, Volume Five on Amazon.

3) The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker (1903)

A horror novel from Dracula author Bram Stoker, The Jewel of Seven Stars is a first-person narrative of a young man pulled into an archaeologist’s plot to revive Queen Tera, an ancient Egyptian mummy. The book explores themes that were discussed at the end of the 19th century, including imperialism, the rise of the New Woman and feminism, and societal progress.

A mysterious attack on Margaret Trelawney’s father brings young lawyer Malcolm Ross into the Egyptologist’s bizarre home, and the couple soon find they are battling ancient forces greater than they previously could have imagined. The Egyptian queen Tera has been awoken, and is coming to take what she believes to be hers—whatever the cost to the Trelawney family.

Set in London and Cornwall, and written at a time when a fascination with the East pervaded Victorian England, The Jewel of Seven Stars reflected what Westerners in the early 1900s believed about Eastern culture, ranging from exotic beauty to savagery.

Reviews

“Stoker is, of course, best known for his influential 1897 novel Dracula, which really sparked the entire modern vampire craze (though there were precursors). He wrote a number of other supernatural thrillers…. The Jewel of Seven Stars is relatively unknown, which is surprising—it is one of the earlier stories about the reanimation of an ancient Egyptian mummy, and it is quite a thrilling tale! It also uses state-of-the-art science of the time to bolster the story—with rather amusing results. What is truly remarkable is that Stoker’s novel contains pretty much all of the elements of future mummy stories—reanimated mummy, a terrible curse, reincarnation, a series of gruesome, mysterious deaths, Egyptian sorcery, and even fearful natives…. Those interested in reading a great horror story, especially fans of mummy tales, will find The Jewel of Seven Stars a delight. (Skulls in the Stars)
“There are two editions of the book. The original was published in 1903, and an abridged version published in 1912. The 1903 version is far and away the better of the two. The later version is a disappointment. Apparently, the publisher at the time felt the original was a bit too strong for the sensibilities of gentle readers, so he had Stoker shorten it and soften the ending. In doing so, Stoker created an ending that rings false. This isn’t the case with the original version. The novel comes to a very satisfying conclusion, one consistent with what has preceded it. (William Wren)

You can buy this edition of The Jewel of Seven Stars—with BOTH endings—from Amazon

THE MUMMY was inspired by THIS BOOK? | Bram Stoker Book Review | Classic Books w/ Paranormal Romance

4) N’Kantu, the Living Mummy from Marvel Comics (1973)

N’Kantu the Living Mummy is a Marvel Comics character who first appeared in a series of comic book stories from 1973 to 1975. He is an adventurer, wanderer, and agent of the Egyptian god of death and rebirth, Anubis. Beneath the Living Mummy’s encompassing bandages lurks the heart of a cunning warrior and masterful tactician, as well as a thoughtful prince to his people. The priest’s potion gifts him with stunning strength and stamina, but his long centuries in the tomb rob N’Kantu of his former agility and speed. Fortunately, this loss is compensated by granite-like skin, resistance to drugs and disease, and near-immortality.

Over the years of walking through the Marvel Comics universe, The Living Mummy has encountered the likes of Fantastic Four member Ben Grimm AKA The Thing, Frankenstein’s Monster, Werewolf by Night, Man-Thing, Morbius the Living Vampire, the Howling Commandos, the Legion of Monsters, the Bloodstones, Doctor Druid’s Shock Troop, and Captain America.

The Origin of Marvel’s Living Mummy | Supernatural Thrillers

5) The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt (Johnny Dixon #2) by John Bellairs (1983)

**A clever young man and an eccentric professor search for a missing fortune, in this spooky adventure full of “marvelous surprises” (Publishers Weekly)**

H. Bagwell Glomus built an empire out of cereal. In the 1920s, his Oaty Crisps were the most popular breakfast in the United States, and Mr. Glomus was the wealthiest man in the little town of Gildersleeve, Massachusetts. But he was not a happy man. In 1936, he took his own life and his will was never found. Legend has it that his last will and testament is hidden somewhere in his office, but so far, no one has been able to find it and claim the $10,000 reward. Yet, no one has looked as hard as Johnny Dixon.

A precocious young boy who’s happier reading old books than playing outside, Johnny has a best friend in the eccentric old Professor Childermass, who knows every detail of Mr. Glomus’s story—except the location of the will. Together, along with a new pal from Boy Scout camp named Fergie, they intend to crack the puzzle—but before they can claim their prize, they must defeat an ancient evil force: a living mummy intent on destroying them.

From the award-winning author of The House with a Clock in Its Walls, the Johnny Dixon stories are a refreshingly old-fashioned series of adventure and supernatural mystery. In the world of young adult suspense, few authors have the magic touch of John Bellairs.

Reviews

“Unlike most of the other Johnny Dixon stories, The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt is more about Johnny growing up than it is about any kind of Gothic mystery (although the mystery is well done, and fun to follow). Any kid who has ever felt left out, isolated, or alone will probably empathize with Johnny. Any kid who likes mystery stories mixed with a little bit of magic will probably enjoy this book, and might pick up a few useful lessons on the value of asking questions and trusting your friends to do the right thing.” (Dreaming About Other Worlds)
“There are several elements that are great about this novel. The first is the Lovecraftian-horror-Gothic style. I love it.... The second element which I absolutely love is the element of religion. This is not a novel about religion—and Bellairs does not make it into one. Johnny is a Roman Catholic. And the novel does not make a big deal of it—but you know when Johnny is about to enter the Crypt that he’s making the Sign of the Cross…. Authors need to learn how to write like Bellairs—everything so smooth and yet, so meaningful. Macabre and not gross. Honest, but yet a good yarn.” (AQ’s Reviews)

Buy The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt from Amazon

6) The Long Night of the Grave (The Universe of Horror Trilogy #3) by Charles L. Grant (1986)

Charles L. Grant sets forth to take us across time and into a fantasy world to his remarkable little Connecticut town of Oxrun Station. There are new horrors on the loose to excite each reader. For all of you who, like the author, yearn for something blatantly old-fashioned, here is an opportunity to climb back into the past, and experience the thrill of the classic tale of The Mummy—the jackal-headed god … ancient Egypt … mummies … eternal …

“In 1981 Grant spoke with specialty publisher Donald M. Grant (no relation), ruefully noting that the classic monsters like Dracula, the Mummy, and the Wolfman had become objects of fun and affection (and breakfast cereal) rather than the figures of terror they had been intended,” explains horror fiction expert Will Errickson at Tor.com in the article Summer of Sleaze: The Universal Horrors of Charles L. Grant. “As a lark, the two Grants decided to produce new novels featuring the iconic creatures, although still in a 19th century setting.”

Errickson says these books all take place in Grant’s own fictional Connecticut town of Oxrun Station, which was the setting for about a dozen of his novels and many of his short stories. “These books ‘would be blatantly old-fashioned. No so-called new ground would be broken. No new insights. No new creatures,’ according to Grant. Setting out to recreate the moonlit mood, graveyard ambience, and cinematic stylings of those old monster movies, Grant delivered three short (all around 150 pages) novels for those hardcore fans of black-and-white horror.”

In the article, Errickson shares info about the first two books in the trilogy, which follow Grant’s variations of Dracula and the Wolf Man. Then he arrives at the book we want to know about here:

“Last is The Long Dark Night of the Grave, and here we get the Mummy. Mummy fiction, huh, I dunno. The Mummy was never really all that scary, was he? Perhaps it’s his implacable sense of vengeance and not his speed that’s supposed to terrify; he won’t stop, not ever, like an undead Anton Chigurh, I suppose. There’s no reasoning, there’s nothing behind those shadowed sunken eye sockets (remember the ancient Egyptians took out the brain through the nasal cavity). This mummy goes after unscrupulous Oxrun Station fellows dealing in Egyptian artifacts, creeping up on them and then when they turn around he’s got ’em by the throat. Never saw it coming. Well, maybe a shadow and a scent of sawdust and spice…

“Overall, these three novels are very light, minor entries in Grant’s Oxrun Station series; maybe imagine scary 1940s flicks never made. I think it’s obvious he wrote them more to satisfy his own nostalgia than anything else; his other fiction is more astute and focuses on modern fears than these simple, sincere, cobwebby tales. They certainly won’t appeal to readers who like their horror cheap and nasty.”

The descriptions of these books—even the blogger’s complaints—intrigue me. I don’t know about you, but I’m certainly checking out these Universal knockoffs. (I’m also going to read some of Grant’s other books, like his two official X-Files books and his X-Files-ish original Black Oak series.)

Buy The Long Dark Night of the Grave from Amazon.

7) Ramses the Damned series by Anne Rice and Christopher Rice (1989)

From the iconic, bestselling author of The Vampire Chronicles—Ramses the Great, former pharaoh of Egypt, is reawakened by the elixir of life in Edwardian England. Starting with The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned (1989), this horror series was written by Anne Rice. Taking place during the early twentieth century, it followed the collision between a British archeologist’s family and a resurrected mummy. Twenty-eight years later, Rice followed up with Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra, co-written with her son, novelist Christopher Rice. The two co-wrote the third novel in this series, Ramses the Damned: The Reign of Osiris, which was published two months after Anne Rice’s death.

“I think the fascinating thing about the Ramses series,” Christopher Rice told Smashing Interviews Magazine, “is that the first book, which was in 1990, I believe, stood apart from everything else Mom’s done. It’s been totally different. It has a breakneck pacing to it that isn’t just the same as her other books. It was a tribute originally, when she launched it, to the old classic tales of H. Rider Haggard and Arthur Conan Doyle. It was meant to be, I think, more gleefully romantic than the vampires and the witches, both of which are kind of reaped in darkness. Ramses was not so much about darkness. It was an adventure story.”

He said that when the first Ramses book was published, it was meant to be the beginning of a series—but then the third novel in The Vampire Chronicles was published, The Queen of the Damned, and was such a monster hit that it changed their lives. “Our lives were never the same after the publication of that book,” Rice says. “It earned back its advance in 24 hours. They were selling it out of the box in the store. It was amazing. So nobody wanted to talk about poor Ramses even though the book went on to sell over a million copies and be a big best seller. So it sat there forever, and there was always this unfinished feeling for Mom…. She brought up the idea about writing the sequel as a novel, and I got interested. There were a lot of challenges.”

The biggest challenge, he pointed out, was that the first book ends on a cliffhanger. “So with the second book,” he said, “you’re obligated to pick up exactly where you left off. I think if you pick up exactly where you left off and then flash forward 100 years, that feels like a cheat to the people who loved the first book. They really wanted to see all those elements move forward and carry forward in a serious way.”

They agreed to write two sequels. “They’re really a great trilogy,” Rice said. “We carry it through with some ideas that are started in the first book. I think they really bloom and come to fruition in the third book. But at the same time, it was just a joyful soap opera, in the best sense of the word, to have all these characters to play with and that she had introduced.”

Book 1 The Mummy or Ramses the Damned

Ramses the Great returns in this “darkly magical” (USA Today) novel from bestselling author Anne Rice. “The reader is held captive and, ultimately, seduced.”—San Francisco Chronicle.

Ramses the Great lives! But having drunk the elixer of live, he is now Ramses the Damned, doomed forever to wander the earth, desperate to quell hungers that can never be satisfied—for food, for wine, for women.

Reawakened in opulent Edwardian London, he becomes Dr. Ramsey, expert in Egyptology. He also becomes the close companion of voluptuous, adventurous Julie Stratford, heiress to a vast shipping fortune and the center of a group of jaded aristocrats with appetites of their own to appease.

But the pleasures Ramses enjoys with Julie cannot soothe him. Searing memories of his last reawakening, at the behest of Cleopatra, his beloved Queen of Egypt, burn in his immortal soul. And though he is immortal, he is still all too human. His intense longings for his great love, undiminished over the centuries, will force him to commit an act that will place everyone around him in the gravest danger....

Buy Book 1 The Mummy or Ramses the Damned from Amazon

Book 2 Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra

Now immortal with his bride-to-be, Ramses the Great is swept up in a fierce and deadly battle of wills and psyches against the once-great Queen Cleopatra.

In this mesmerizing, glamorous tale of ancient feuds and modern passions, Ramses has reawakened Cleopatra with the same perilous elixir whose unworldly force brings the dead back to life. But as these ancient rulers defy one another in their quest to understand the powers of the strange elixir, they are haunted by a mysterious presence even older and more powerful than they, a figure drawn forth from the mists of history who possesses spectacular magical potions and tonics eight millennia old.

This is a figure who ruled over an ancient kingdom stretching from the once-fertile earth of the Sahara to the far corners of the world, a queen with a supreme knowledge of the deepest origins of the elixir of life. She may be the only one who can make known to Ramses and Cleopatra the key to their immortality—and the secrets of the miraculous, unknowable, endless expanse of the universe.

Buy Book 2 Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra from Amazon

Book 3 Ramses the Damned: The Reign of Osiris

The gilded adventures of Ramses the Damned, iconic creation of the legendary bestselling author, continue in this breathtakingly suspenseful tale of a titanic supernatural power unleashed on the eve of war.

A pharaoh made immortal by a mysterious and powerful elixir, Ramses the Great became counselor and lover to some of Egypt’s greatest and most powerful rulers before he was awakened from centuries of slumber to the mystifying and dazzling world of Edwardian England.

Having vanquished foes both human and supernatural, he’s found love with the beautiful heiress Julie Stratford, daughter of Lawrence Stratford, the slain archeologist who discovered his tomb. Now, with the outbreak of a world war looming, Ramses and those immortals brought forth from the mists of history by his resurrection will face their greatest test yet.

Russian assassins bearing weapons of immense power have assembled under one command: all those who loved Lawrence Stratford must die. From the glowing jewels at their necks comes an incredible supernatural force: the power to bring statues to life. As Ramses and his allies, including the immortal queens Cleopatra and Bektaten, gather together to battle these threats, Ramses reveals that the great weapon may have roots in an ancient Egyptian ritual designed to render pharaohs humble before Osiris, the god of the underworld.

The resulting journey will take them across storm-tossed seas and into the forests of northern Russia, where they will confront a terrifying collision of tortured political ambitions and religious fervor held in thrall to a Godlike power. But the true answers they seek will lie beyond the border between life and death, within realms that defy the imagination of even an immortal such as Ramses the Great.

In Ramses the Damned: The Reign of Osiris, Anne Rice, revered and beloved storyteller (“queen of gothic lit, the maestro of the monstrous and the diva of the devious” –The Philadelphia Inquirer), in collaboration with her son, acclaimed bestselling novelist Christopher Rice (“a magician; a master” –Peter Straub), bring us another thrilling, seductive tale of high adventure, romance, history, and suspense.

Buy Book 3 Ramses the Damned: The Reign of Osiris from Amazon

Reading the Mummy Series by Anne Rice - Reading Vlog | Manuscripts, Musick, and Mor

8) The various mummies in the Goosebumps books by R.L. Stine (1992-1997)

A series of children’s horror fiction novels written by R. L. Stine, the Goosebumps stories follow kids dealing with scary situations—generally containing supernatural events and monsters.

“When we started out, I was very reluctant to do the series all together,” Stine told TIME magazine in the article R.L. Stine Is Still Out Here Scaring Kids 30 Years After Launching Goosebumps. “Because I was doing the Fear Street books for teenagers, and I didn’t want to mess up the older audience. No one had ever done a scary series for [ages] seven to 11 before, and I just wasn’t sure it would work. That’s the kind of businessman I am: I didn’t want to do Goosebumps. I said, All right, if I can think of a good name, maybe we’ll do two or three. And now it’s 30 years later.”

There happen to be several Goosebumps books that include mummies:

The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb featured an assortment of mummies.
Return of the Mummy featured the Mummy of Prince Kho-ru, the fictional cousin of King Tut.
Diary of a Mad Mummy featured the Mummy of King Buthramaman.
The Mummy Walks featured the Mummy of Emperor Pukrah of Jekeziah.
The Tales to Give You Goosebumps story “Don’t Wake Mummy” featured a mummy. The television adaption of this episode also featured the mummy’s cat.
Who’s Your Mummy featured an assortment of mummies.
The Dummy Meets the Mummy featured the Mummy of Arragotus.

Find several Goosebumps mummy books at Amazon here.

Goosebumps & Gore: The Dummy Meets The Mummy! | CCPL

9) The mummy in Blood Lines (Blood series #3) by Tanya Huff (1993)

“I love that we get to have an adventure dealing with yet another typical horror monster—this time it’s a mummy!” (Way Too Fantasy)

Tanya Huff’s Blood Books is a popular urban fantasy series that follows the adventures of the crime-fighting duo Vicki Nelson, a Toronto private investigator, and Henry Fitzroy, a Tudor-era vampire and romance writer. The book series was adapted into a TV show on Lifetime (2007-2008).

In the third volume of the books, Blood Lines, an evil being has been sealed away for centuries in a sarcophagus never meant to be opened, waiting patiently for his chance to rise again. Now, brought to the Egyptology Department of Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum, the seals and spells that imprisoned him chipped away from his discoverers, he has reached forth to claim the minds and souls of Toronto’s unsuspecting citizens. And only three people had any sense that something was wrong….

Huff outlined the occult detective fiction series in an interview with Female First. “The five blood books—Blood Price, Blood Trail, Blood Lines, Blood Debt, Blood Pact—and the short story collection, Blood Bank—are the story of police detective Vicki Nelson, who left the Toronto force to become a private investigator when Retinitis Pigmentosa sidelined her into a desk job. When as series of grisly murders bring her into contact with Henry Fitzroy—bastard son of Henry VIII and a vampire—her world expands to include werewolves, reanimated mummies, Frankenstein’s monster (sans Frankenstein), and vengeful ghosts. Although not all at the same time...”

Buy Blood Lines from Amazon

Reviews

“The villain is a century’s old, previously entombed, Egyptian wizard/high-priest. I loved the Egyptian mummy plot of this book. So much so that I want to go out and read other books with a mummy/zombie plot. If you loved the 1999 film ‘The Mummy’ then this book is right up your alley. Sticking a mummy in modern-day (1990’s) Toronto made for a fabulously twisted whodunit with a fresh supernatural bent.” (Alpha Reader | My Solo Book Club)
“The staff members of the Royal Ontario Museum are thrilled to receive a mummy—only they report it as an empty sarcophagus and nothing more when the mummy disappears. But two mysterious deaths at the museum catch the eye of homicide detective Mike Celluci, private investigator Vicki Nelson and vampire Henry Fitzroy. Each time the mummy acquires a new soul for strength, the victims instantly die…” (Tez Says)

Related links:

10) Scarabus: The Tale of the Mummy by Karen Koehler (2002)

Horror never dies…

For over three thousand years the demon known as Scarabus has waged a one-man war on the cult of mad zealots who created him. Able to command the elements around him and change his shape at will, he can appear as a beautiful young man--or as a swarm of bloodthirsty insects. Scarabus exists immortal in time and space, lord of darkness, servant to none.

Now things are changing. Things are becoming. The once proud and loveless demon has grown weary of his endless nights of murder and wandering. In his own words comes the history of a being with no life--and no death. Journey with Scarabus through the dark veil of years, from the lush beauty of Ancient Middle Kingdom Egypt to the decadent nightclub splendor of 21st Century Chicago as he walks the night, searching for the woman he loves, searching for an escape from a living damnation on earth.

Scarabus the Damned. Scarabus, Deathbringer. A man who is a monster, he hopes to salvage his lost soul and take revenge on those who destroyed his life.

Every man lives. Not every man truly dies…

Buy Scarabus from Amazon

According to Musings of the Monster Librarian, Karen H. Koehler is a versatile writer who has written everything from kaiju novels to paranormal-tinged steampunk and noir. “I’m a fairly eclectic writer,” author Koehler told the site. “I’ve been known to change voice and style frequently, depending on the sub-genre of the project or the particular needs of the story. But overall, when in ‘horror mode’—as opposed to, say, ‘pulp mode,’ ‘steampunk mode,’ or ‘mystery mode’—I usually try to convey feelings of isolation and oppression in my work. I’m interested in the inner workings of the damaged loner, the anti-hero, the freak, the castoff from society, the villain. I have to say I love the jaded, reluctant, sometimes even misanthropic voice of the Byronic Hero.”

11) To Wake the Dead by Richard Laymon (2003)

An ancient beauty…

Amara was once the Princess of Egypt, the beautiful wife of Mentuhotep the First. Now, 4000 years later, she and her coffin are merely prized exhibits of the Charles Ward museum. Her lovely face and strong, young body are no more. If you were to look at her today you would see only a brittle bundle of bones and dried skin. But looks can be very deceiving…

A missing mummy…

Barney, the museum’s night watchman, is the first to make the shocking discovery that the mummy’s coffin has been broken open. He immediately assumes it’s the work of grave-robbers who care nothing about the sanctity of the dead. But Barney doesn’t have a chance to do anything about it. Then two security guards come upon the open coffin and they too believe that the mummy has been stolen. What else could sane men think? By the time they realize the unbelievable truth, it’s far too late for them to do anything…ever again.

The walking dead!

Now Amara is once again freed from the cramped confines of her coffin, free to walk the earth, free to stalk her prey. Free to kill. Nothing can satisfy her deadly bloodlust. And no one can stop her. You cannot kill what is already dead.

Buy To Wake the Dead from Amazon

“I do always try to base my books on a simple concept—a ‘what if’,” author Laymon said in a classic interview reprinted by Ginger Nuts of Horror. “Then I try to make my characters ‘everyday people’. The sort of people you might know—or be. They aren’t the rich and famous, the jet setters, or the movers and shakers. They’re just ordinary folks.”

Laymon said that his characters do not act like movie heroes. “I get in to them, and try to have them act the way a real person (me, for instance) might behave in each situations. They know they aren’t movie heroes. They know they might get hurt or killed, so they usually exhibit a certain amount of caution and common sense. More often than not, they’ll do what a reasonably smart person would do under the circumstances. For instance they won’t stick around where anyone with half a brain would run like hell. My people will run like hell—unless they can’t.”

He said that another reason his stories might seem ‘very close to having a personal experience’ is because he doesn’t always follow the rules and conventions of fiction. “Everything is not foreshadowed,” he explained. “Accidents happen. Coincidences happen. As in life, but rarely in fiction, stuff sometimes happens unexpectedly and for no apparent reason.”

12) The Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan (2010)

The adventure novels from Rick Riordan often delve into world mythology, including his Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and the Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard books. The author jumps into Egyptian mythology with The Kane Chronicles, featuring hilarious asides, memorable monsters, and an ever-changing crew of friends and foes in an adventure trilogy set in the same universe as his other series. The novels follow two siblings who are powerful magicians—descended from pharaohs—who must deal with Egyptian gods and goddesses in the modern world.

Riordan told NPR that he always aims to “find the universal” in his books. “Even if these stories are 3,000 years old, there’s still so much about the characters, about the dilemmas, about their understanding of the universe that still resonates. The whole idea of order and chaos, which is really central to the ancient Egyptian understanding of the world, is still very much with us. You know, how much order is good? And when does order become too restrictive? Is a little bit of chaos OK, or is chaos always an evil force? I mean, these are questions that any kid who's ever been in a school cafeteria can relate to.

The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles #1)—Since their mother’s death, Carter and Sadie have become near strangers. While Sadie has lived with her grandparents in London, her brother has traveled the world with their father, the brilliant Egyptologist, Dr. Julius Kane. One night, Dr. Kane brings the siblings together for a “research experiment” at the British Museum, where he hopes to set things right for his family. Instead, he unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes him to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives. Buy The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles #1) from Amazon.
The Throne of Fire (The Kane Chronicles #2)—Carter and Sadie, offspring of the brilliant Egyptologist Dr. Julius Kane, embark on a worldwide search for the Book of Ra, but the House of Life and the gods of chaos are determined to stop them. Buy The Throne of Fire (The Kane Chronicles #2) from Amazon.
The Serpent’s Shadow (The Kane Chronicles #3)—He’s b-a-a-ack! Despite their best efforts, Carter and Sade Kane can’t keep Apophis, the chaos snake, down. Now Apophis is threatening to plunge the world into eternal darkness, and the Kanes are faced with the impossible task of having to destroy him once and for all. Buy The Serpent’s Shadow (The Kane Chronicles #3) from Amazon.

The whole Kane Chronicles trilogy is also available as a single edition here.

13) The Mummy: Legends of Night anthology by Black Ink Fiction (2022)

Mummies have captured humans’ imaginations for thousands of years. They promise an afterlife of power and riches, the hope that there is something after death, and sometimes, the chance to return to the land of the living.

In the anthology The Mummy: Legends of Night, there are more than 150 micro-fiction stories from authors around the globe. Each tale offers one hundred words, a glimpse into each world, with a promise that there is more out there—and more to mummies—that needs to be explored. Part of Black Ink Fiction’s exploration into the Legends of Night, this monster collection is sure to wrap its way around your heart.

Buy The Mummy: Legends of Night from Amazon

Mummy Fiction Books by Anne Rice, Bram Stoker, R.L. Stine, more

“You haven’t found all the answers yet…”

Related link: The Mummy: 15 Versions from Movies

The Mummy: 13 Alternate Print Versions