Curse of Pharaohs/Elizabeth Peters

Curse of the Pharaohs by Elizabeth Peters (Amelia Peabody Mysteries, book 2); mystery, historical fiction; 285 pages (about 10 hours on CD)

I'm still immensely enjoying this series. This book picks up about 7 years after Crocodile on the Sandbank, with our main characters happily married, and parents to young son who may be an evil genius. Amelia and her husband are called away from their family home, however, to finish a dig that's been cut short by a series of tragedies. The string of events (everything from sickness to injury to death) has lead most to believe there's an ancient curse at work, but Amelia believes there's a more mundane cause, and she's out to catch the culprit.

I LOVED the relationship between Amelia and Emerson as it was portrayed in this book. Amelia is too practical to get choked up on emotions, but it's clear that she and Emerson are crazy about each other, even in their arguments. I'm looking forward to picking up the next book in this series, The Mummy Case.

Crocodile on the Sandbank/Elizabeth Peters

Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters (Amelia Peabody mysteries, book 1); mystery, historical fiction; 273 pages

I started reading this series because I so much enjoyed Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series, and had heard from many, many people that the main characters of those books are essentially reworkings of Amelia Peabody and Radcliffe Emerson from Peters’ mysteries (that’s very true, by the way: I can totally see Amelia and Alexia sitting down to tea in some alternate Victorian London and snarking about men, society, and parasols. But I digress.) I had also been told by many other sources that this series was worth checking out--so here I am.

This story opens with Amelia in Italy, en route to Cairo. Her father’s death has left her a wealthy, well-educated (and very opinionated) spinster of 32, and she’s decided to do what she always wanted: see Egypt. Along the way, she befriends an honorable-but-disgraced noblewoman and the prickly gentleman archaeologist, Radcliffe Emerson (though maybe “befriends” is the wrong word to use here—Amelia and Emerson are both so stubborn that all they do is fight). While visiting Emerson’s dig, the group finds themselves haunted by a mysterious figure that appears to be a walking mummy, bent on destroying the dig. Amelia sets out to uncover the culprit behind the apparition, while studying the rudiments of archaeology along the way.

I loved this book for so many reasons: The Egyptology is accurate (as it should be: Peters is the pen name of a successful Egyptologist), which is important to me in a book like this. Having an introduction to Eyptology helped, but Peters explains things well enough that even a person with no previous knowledge of the field should be able to pick it up. And yet Peters never goes in for the info-dump; the story sails along smoothly, and Amelia and Emerson’s constant bickering/flirting adds just enough romance to keep it interesting, without turning into an all-out romance. And Amelia and Emerson throw some one-liners into the story that had me laughing out loud. To make it even better, the book was set at Amarna, one of my favorite places in Egyptian history.

I should mention, though, that there were some elements of the book I enjoyed less: Amelia-as-narrator tends to take a very Imperialist view of the Egyptian people that often made me uncomfortable, despite the fact that such opinions fit her time period and character. I think I could have gotten around it, but I really liked Amelia otherwise, and every time she made some condescending comment about the non-British characters, I questioned whether I should like her. I reminded myself that this book was written almost 40 years ago, so maybe later entries in this series will be more enlightened. I definitely going to keep going with the series to see how it progresses.

A River in the Sky / Elizabeth Peters

A River in the Sky by Elizabeth Peters (An Amelia Peabody book #19). 307 pp.

Amelia Peabody is one of my all-time favorite characters. She starts out an unconventional Victorian spinster and ends up married to her match in every way, Professor Radcliffe Emerson, preeminent archaeologist. As the series goes on there's lots of family and friends added to the cast, huge heaps of adventure (including a Master Criminal), plus some pretty accurate archaeology. (Elizabeth Peters is one of the pen names of Barbara Mertz, who has a PhD in Egyptology.) This entry in the series isn't chronological; it falls between books 10 and 11, and thus lacks some of the character development we would normally get. Also, it's set in Palestine rather than Egypt, so a lot of the regular supporting cast is missing. Still, as an adventure it's pretty much fun.