Valerie Norton’s debut fantasy novel, The Darkness Beneath, is due to be released in spring and draws inspiration from the 1999 film The Mummy. Rather than retelling the film, Norton reverses its central character dynamic, pairing a grief-driven female adventurer with a gentle male scholar as they seek a lost city while confronting an ancient evil.

The novel follows Aris, an explorer turned thief seeking revenge, and Killian, a wealthy, bookish and inexperienced scholar. Norton said the idea emerged from asking what The Mummy might have looked like if Rick O’Connell had been the scholar and Evelyn Carnahan the treasure hunter; the pair must work together because Aris needs help escaping fighting pits, while Killian needs her field expertise to find Nemethet.