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Summary
Summary
No villain is safe in 1903 Egypt as feisty archaeologist Amelia Peabody embarks on her ninth adventure.
According to an ancient Egyptian papyrus, dreaming of a large cat means good luck. And that's just what Amelia Peabody could use, as her growing family matures in the new century. What's more, Amelia's dashing husband Emerson has received a mysterious warning not to enter the Valley of the Kings. To Emerson's annoyance, Amelia's meddling distracts her attention as she exposes a fraudulent spiritualist, saves a marriage, and plays matchmaker. But diabolical forces are at work when an unknown tomb reveals a shocking murder -- and the Peabody family dodges bullets from an assassin determined to put an end to their discoveries.
Author Notes
Barbara Mertz was born on September 29, 1927 in Astoria, Illinois. She received a bachelor's degree in 1947, a master's degree in 1950 and doctorate in Egyptology in 1952 from the University of Chicago. She wrote a few books using her real name including Temples, Tombs and Hieroglyphs (1964), Red Land, Black Land (1966), and Two Thousand Years in Rome (1968). She also wrote under the pen names Barbara Michaels and Elizabeth Peters.
She made her fiction debut, The Master of Blacktower, under the name Barbara Michaels in 1966. She wrote over two dozen novels using this pen name including Sons of the Wolf, Someone in the House, Vanish with the Rose, Dancing Floor, and Other Worlds.
Her debut novel under the pen name Elizabeth Peters was The Jackal's Head in 1968. She also wrote the Amelia Peabody series and Vicky Bliss Mystery series using this name. She died on August 8, 2013 at the age of 85.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
It's 1903, and irrepressible archeologist Amelia Peabody, returning with her extended family in their charming ninth adventure (after The Hippopotamus Pool), is in Cairo, headed for the Valley of the Kings. Her husband, Emerson, receives an anonymous note telling him to stay away from tomb Twenty A. Digging there, the group discovers the mummified body of the wife of English archeology patron Colonel Bellingham who was rumored to have disappeared five years earlier with a lover, leaving behind the Colonel and his then teenage daughter, Dolly. Close examination of the corpse reveals that the woman was murdered. Since the Colonel already believes that Dolly's life is in danger, all agree that the young woman needs protection. Unruffled, Dolly keeps trying to attach herself to Amelia's teenage son, Ramses, who is intrigued by a man who might have been the dead woman's lover and who definitely attacked him while he escorted Dolly in a Cairo public garden. Meanwhile, Ramses' former tutor asks for help with her husband, who has come under the influence of a seer and now believes that the spirit of an ancient Egyptian princess wants him to find her tomb. With characteristic aplomb, Amelia straightens everything out and finds the killer. In the process, she puts off observing that her son has grown to be a handsome young man, that his Egyptian friend, David, is a quiet potential rival and that few have overlooked the beauty and intelligence of her ward, Nefret. Peters's fans will relish this latest adventure that explores mysteries of the heart as well as murder. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
As her legions of fans will readily testify, Amelia Peabody Emerson, who wields a mean parasol, is not your usual whodunit heroine. Ladies in 1903 did not climb pyramids or excavate Egyptian tombs. And they certainly didn't solve crimes. Amelia, of course, does all three and always does them extremely well. In this new adventure, she's exceptionally busy. Not only must she make sense of a brutal murder and help an old friend whose drippy husband has gone "over the edge," she must also rein in the feminist sensibilities of her pretty adopted daughter (who models herself after Amelia) and keep her headstrong, lovestruck teenage son, Ramses, out of trouble. As usual, Peters' zesty characters--particularly Amelia's explosive archaeologist husband, Radcliffe ("Good Gad, Peabody")--are marvelous, and there's plenty of lively repartee to push the story along. The comedy is great, as well, with Peters' knowing precisely how to balance starchy Amelia's officious social respectability with her penchant for meddling in other people's affairs. --Stephanie Zvirin
Kirkus Review
In a triumphal procession of eight previous adventures (The Hippopotamus Pool, 1996, etc.), Peters has embellished the mythos of Amelia Peabody: early 20th-century English feminist and Egyptologist, wife to uxorious colleague Emerson, adoptive aunt and mother, respectively, to polite, Anglo-Arabic David and lovely Nephret of the red-gold hair (unconventionally desert-reared) and worried mom to daring, teenaged Ramses, hero and heartthrob in the making. This time, the Cairo digging season opens with a flurry of social invitations, including a mysterious challenge to investigate site 20-A in the Valley of the Kings--a tomb that doesn't exist. Except, of course, that it does, although the body uncovered there has expired so recently that the lady's golden curls and embroidered silks are still intact. Frustrated by etiquette and red tape, Amelia still finds evidence identifying the mummy as the several-years-dead fourth wife of Colonel Bellingham, an expatriate southern gentleman with a predatory belle of a daughter who's gone through paid companions as quickly as the Colonel has gone through young wives. What follows are attempts on Miss Bellingham's life, midnight excursions by the young folks, and Amelia's efforts to help an old friend whose husband is, thanks to the manipulations of a psychic charlatan, lusting after a dead Egyptian princess. Peters compensates for ordinary prose and fussy plotting with humor and nicely calibrated domestic psychology. Fans will follow her, if only to learn how Amelia copes with Ramses's love life. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Amelia Peabody and family begin the 1903 "digging" season in Egypt with the usual anticipation. At least two pleas for help and a mysterious warning about a Valley of the Kings tomb, however, complicate life and lead to the expected dangerous adventure. Essential reading from a pro. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
