Before the Cock Crow

London: Frederick Muller Ltd. Very Good+ in Very Good dust jacket. 1986. First Edition. Hardcover. 058431177x . Light edge wear to dustjacket and book; A bright, solid book, DJ in protective Mylar sleeve, unclipped. ; The First-born of Egypt #3; 1.02 x 8.43 x 5.51 Inches; 274 pages; This is the third volume in Simon Raven’s First Born of Egypt saga, following Morning Star and The Face of the Waters. The story opens with Lord Canteloupe’s strange toast to ‘absent friends’. His wife Baby has recently died and Canteloupe has been left her retarded son, Lord Sarum of Old Sarum. This child is not his, but has been conceived by Major Fielding Gray. In Italy there is an illegitimate child with a legitimate claim to the estate, whom Canteloupe wants silenced. The plot also sees young Marius Stern and his school friend, Tessa Malcolm, drawn into Milo Hedley’s schemes and into a dramatic finale orchestrated by Raisley Conyngham, Milo’s teacher. .