Book Review: Tombs of Little Egypt
Tombs of Little Egypt. James Varga, Resource Publications, 18 July 2022, Paperback, Hardback, eBook, 182 pages.
Reviewed by Evelyn Ann Casey.
Author James Varga spins an intriguing yarn about the righteous and the not-so in Tombs of Little Egypt. He places the narrator’s pen in the hand of Sam Carter, longtime sheriff of a small town in southern Illinois. His formerly placid town has become host to tour buses following a much-publicized grave-robbing trial, and he feels the need to set the record straight.
Through Sheriff Sam, readers meet all the expected law-abiding and occasionally drunk characters of Greens Point, the county seat of an area known as Little Egypt for its River Nile-type geography. The story begins with the sheriff coasting to retirement, but when the cemetery owner reports a dug-up grave, plans change. More chagrined at the trouble than eager to solve the mystery, Sheriff Sam performs a cursory search and gets the coffin shoveled back into place. He likes to let problems solve themselves. His modus operandi is sorely tested when two more graves are disturbed. As luck would have it, two drifters have blown into town—with a pick and a shovel and a pocket watch bearing the initials of one of the tombs’ residents.
Media from as far away as Chicago descend on Greens Point for the spectacle of a grave-robbing trial. Reporters and gawkers fill the local tavern, buy trinket souvenirs from the general store, and get their cars gassed and serviced. The sleepy town wakes up. The Reverend warns his congregation that the line between right and wrong, good and evil, will be examined and become grayer with the examining. “A person’s response to life’s misfortune is the best measure for the truly good.”
The brains of the grave robbing expedition appear to be Lou, a coarse but not entirely hardened criminal. His big lug of a partner, Duke, couldn’t hurt a flea, but his broad back could dig up a graveyard easily. In his account of the trial, Sheriff Sam does not leave out the one bit of evidence that could change the outcome—however, he quickly brushes it aside.
Author James Varga is a circuit court judge in Chicago, so it came as no surprise that his novel provides meticulous credibility in the chapters detailing the trial. The unexpected pleasure was finding vivid human theatre in his subtle probe of morality. If the reader solves the riddle posed by Sheriff Sam’s sphinxlike wife, the story will go down as easily as her meatloaf and ketchup sandwiches.