When
Victor Fitzgerald is killed by a falling statue, Lisa Donahue becomes interim Director of her Boston
University Museum. Suddenly she's juggling murder, artifact theft and a complicated move into a new building. Then
the treacherous Dean announces her replacement, a vicious woman from Lisa's past... "I’ve
always thought of a museum as a quiet place to while away the time, but that’s not the case when Sarah
Wisseman shows us what can happen behind the scenes. Her character, Lisa Donahue has
a distinctively difficult challenge ahead of her to keep her position at the museum. Some of the display pieces go missing,
and newly discovered mummies haven’t been procured from Egypt. The Fall of Augustus will
definitely keep you guessing who the culprit might be, right down to the last chapter. " --Jo Ellen Conger, Conger Book Reviews "Sarah Wisseman
has written a clever, erudite museum murder mystery..." --Bill Grescens, Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center at the University
of Wisconsin - La Crosse
"Wow! I just finished reading the Fall and
my head is spinning!
What a tale! It would make a good movie." --Allan C. Campbell, M.D. "...Wisseman's talent is writing character-driven novels
that keep readers turning the pages and coming back for another installment. Lisa Donahue is a spunky, realistic
and lovable character who readers will certainly cheer through "The Fall of Augustus and the entire series..." --author and editor Margo L. Dill . Review published in the Champaign-Urbana News Gazette on February 21, 2010. "This series keeps getting better with each book! Lisa and
James are likable and realistic characters.The story is very compelling and
I enjoyed learning more about the amazing Egyptian archeological
sites, which Wisseman is an expert on! She incorporates that
well into the tense drama unfolding behind the scenes. As an
avid mystery reader, I highly recommend this series to other
mystery lovers."
--K.B. Kane, Book and Lunch Group, Champaign, IL
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 Book 4: THE HOUSE OF THE SPHINX
(2009) Lisa and James take an overdue honeymoon to Egypt. While visiting fabulous monuments and archaeological sites, they stumble upon a plot to infect western tourists with smallpox. This suspense novel features a return of Lisa's old flame, Greg Manzur, from the first book, The Dead Sea Codex. Radio Interview WILL Public Radio, Urbana, IL Excerpt (chapter 1) Longer excerpt (Mysterical-E, fall 2011 issue)"Sarah Wisseman continues her delightful
Lisa Donahue series by departing from the standard archaeological mystery mode. In a sense she has done this previously when
her second in the series, The Dead Sea Codex, was a prequel to Bound for Eternity. In this,
the fourth Donahue adventure, archaeology – or more accurately, Egyptology—serves as a backdrop for a medical
thriller set in a travelogue. Lisa, taking a break from her duties as Director of the Boston
University Museum of Archaeology and History, joins her husband James Barber, a radiologist at Boston’s Beth Israel
Deaconess Hospital, for a delayed honeymoon—a ten day tour of the wonders and mysteries of Egyptian archaeology.
This tour of a
lifetime soon turns into the Vacation from Hell, but not so much so that it shoves the marvels of ancient Egypt off the page.
In fact, Sarah Wisseman delivers a first rate guide to touring in Egypt. From the initial visit to the magnificent,
if very traditional and somewhat confusing hodgepodge that is the Cairo Museum to the great pyramids of the Giza plateau to
the colossi of Abu Simbel far up the Nile to the splendors of Luxor, Karnak and the Valleys of the Kings and Queens, the author
describes Lisa’s journey will great vividness and affection. This attention to detail includes a wonderfully accurate
account of the obligatory camel ride and photo opportunity at Giza—an exercise in salutary humiliation for almost every
Western tourist to Egypt!..." More -Bill
Gresens, archaeologist, Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. "...The House of the Sphinx is written with history
that only an archaeologist such as Sarah Wisseman could write. She takes you through Egypt and describes the sites
in such detail that if you close your eyes, you can almost see them. She also makes us aware of the possibility and
simplicity of germ warfare. You become aware of how easily a disease that was once eradicated can be re-introduced to the
world, even today. This is a book filled with education, not only in history but also in survival." -- Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author
of Stir, Laugh, Repeat
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