Cairo Jim and the Astragals of Angkor

(Paperback)

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IN THE ABANDONED, MUSTY UNDERGROUND store rooms of the Old Relics Society in Cairo, Gerald Perry (Esquire) leads Jim, Doris and Brenda to a row of six almost-forgotten, dust-covered crates secreted away in the gloominess. These crates, Perry tells his friends, were deposited down here long ago, shortly after Perry himself had the headquarters of the Old Relics Society built. The crates were left by an archaeologist-explorer who was himself an old man when Perry was young. That man, Perry informs was none other than Hercule Von Coddler one of the most felonious, thieving, wretchedly arrogant distorters of our profession! As each crate is uncovered, the store rooms become filled with awe-struck incredulity. The crates hold six large stone astragals convex mouldings hewn from the walls of an obviously ancient building. Each of the astragals has been carved with the figure of a dancing apsara heavenly nymph. It turns out they are the famous Astragals of the Apsaras, and therein lies their great, almost incomprehensible secret: each of the heavenly nymphs is demonstrating what appears to be a different sort of yoga or exercise position, with their arms, legs, necks and torsos bent and distorted, and all-akimbo, this way and that. They represent a sacred series of meditational mantras. The final astragal, the seventh, is supposed to show the final position attained before the human body will vanish in a single second into a plane only half in this world. Jim and his friends realise that someone is armed with lightweight replicas of the Astragals of the Apsaras replicas that may very well lead them to the last remaining astragal. They are dispatched to the vast and beautiful complex of Angkor, where they set about trying to thwart whoever is seemingly following in the footsteps of Hercule Von Coddler to obtain an all-empowering ancient knowledge which, if misused, could halt the progress of humankind as we know it.

Reviews

'When you tire of stories about the places and people you know, try the witty word play and over-the-top adventure of Cairo Jim for an outrageous tonic.' The Age [The Age]

Author Bio

Geoffrey McSkimming was born in Sydney in 1962 and lives in Normanhurst NSW. He studied at the University of New South Wales and then worked as an actor for five years. Geoffrey has had short stories, articles and poems published in various journals. Previous Books: Cairo Jim and Doris in Search of Martenarten (1991), Cairo Jim on the Trail to ChaCha Muchos (1992), Cairo Jim and the Sunken Sarcophagus of Sekheret (1994), Cairo Jim and the Alabastron of Forgotten Gods (1996), Cairo Jim s Bumper Book of Flabbergasting Fragments (1996), Cairo Jim and the Quest for the Quetzal Queen (1997), Cairo Jim and the Secret Sepulchre of the Sphinx (1999), Cairo Jim Amidst the Petticoats of Artemis (2000), Cairo Jim and the Lagoon of Tidal Magnificence (2000), Cairo Jim and the Tyrannical Bauble of Tiberius (2001), Cairo Jim and the Chaos from Crete (2002), Cairo Jim and the Rorting of Rameses Regalia (2003), Cairo Jim and Jocelyn Osgood in Bedlam from Bollywood (2004), Cairo Jim and the Sumptuous Stash of Silenus(2005)