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I was browsing the used book store the other day and came across this book and the summary on the back of the book seemed wild, but I set it back on the shelf and walked out of the store. After not being able to stop thinking about it all weekend I went back, but I couldn't find the book at all. And searching the internet hasn't been very useful, it just pulls up non-fiction books about mummies or about banditos, but not a novel about both.

From what I remember from the back cover the main character is an Indiana Jones type character that discovers a tomb in Egypt with a fancy sarcophagus and several smaller coffins with mummies. He ships them back to LA to study them and along the way they get stolen by Mexican "banditos". Then he has to rescue them. The end of the summary heavily implied there was something mystical at play, but never said what it was. But I thought it was about the mummies coming to life.

If I remember which corner of the store I was in (a good assumption) and if the book was on the correct shelf (also a reasonable assumption), the author's last name probably started with a W. I remember the cover as being overall yellow with the face of the Indiana Jones character prominently featured, fedora and everything. It also showcased the sarcophagi and I'm pretty sure there was the typical beautiful woman / love interest. The cover art was a painting that made me think '90s, but that could be way off.

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It's from a bit early in the alphabet, but Fury from the Tomb by S.A. Sidor matches all the other details including a gratuitously Indiana Jones style cover:

Cover of "Fury from the Tomb" showing a clean-cut white man in a green vest holding a torch and a blonde woman in a black dress holding a large, smoking revolver. Behind them looms a skeleton in an Egyptian headdress.

The book description from Goodreads (emphasis mine):

Mummies, grave-robbing ghouls, hopping vampires, and evil monks beset a young archaeologist, in this fast-paced Indiana Jones-style adventure.

Saqqara, Egypt, 1888, and in the booby-trapped tomb of an ancient sorcerer, Rom, a young Egyptologist, makes the discovery of a lifetime: five coffins and an eerie, oversized sarcophagus. But the expedition seems cursed, for after unearthing the mummies, all but Rom die horribly. He faithfully returns to America with his disturbing cargo, continuing by train to Los Angeles, home of his reclusive sponsor. When the train is hijacked by murderous banditos in the Arizona desert, who steal the mummies and flee over the border, Rom - with his benefactor's rebellious daughter, an orphaned Chinese busboy, and a cold-blooded gunslinger - must ride into Mexico to bring the malevolent mummies back. If only mummies were their biggest problem...

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    This is it! Thanks. That makes me think I was looking at the wrong shelf.
    – Isaiah Young
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 at 20:39
  • This has to be it.
    – Dosco Jones
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 at 20:39
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Could it be Treasure Hunter: Caches, Curses and Deadly Confrontations by W.C. Jameson? The cover is a close fit for your description:

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WC Jameson's book of true stories of treasure hunting for gold and silver in Mexico and the American Southwest makes for an amazing read. This book has it all. Caves, mummies, curses, silver bullets (albeit inadvertent), quicksand, gun play and snakes. Lots of snakes.

Why did it have to be snakes?

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    Nope. This one appears to be non-fiction. But according to the Goodreads reviews it does involve mummies and Mexico.
    – Isaiah Young
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 at 20:32

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