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79th out of 738 books
—
1,609 voters
The Mummy Case (Amelia Peabody #3)
Amelia Peabody's archaeologist husband Emerson is on a dig where nothing seems worthy of interest, until a sinister murder suspect turns up at the site. Danger mounts when Amelia and Emerson look for answers in an ancient tomb that nearly becomes their grave. Reissue.
Mass Market Paperback, 327 pages
Published
June 1st 1995
by Warner Books
(first published 1985)
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Yet another fun mystery featuring Amelia Peabody. While I have to admit the mystery didn't interest me much, the repartee between the indomitable Amelia and Emerson, and Ms. Peabody's (or Mrs. Emerson's) narration, more than made up for it. Ramses can be amusing also, but he can be a bit too much sometimes, probably because he is too precocious and smart to be believed. How many languages does this five-year-old know? Although I do think this specific example is the whole point of these books an...more
This 3rd book in the Amelia Peabody series was a huge disapointment. The first two were hilarious and fun to read, despite the weakness of a having a pretty vague or unremarkable mysterie at their core. Peters seems to not have had much of a thought as to who the perpetrators or the mytery should be whe sitting down and writing this book. It feels like at the end whe we find out what was going on and who the villains are, she is half heartedly trying to fit the persons in as the criminals rather...more
[9/10] : my favorite so far in the history of the impetuous Amelia Peabody Emerson, probably because this is the first archeological adventure featuring Ramses the Menace , the precocius, locvacious and slightly insalubrious offspring of the original duo.
It is very easy to fall in love with a 4 years old whirlywind who manages to eclipse even his mother in the realm of flowery language and his father in the realm of egyptology. The plot may be similar to those in the first two volumes , but Rams...more
It is very easy to fall in love with a 4 years old whirlywind who manages to eclipse even his mother in the realm of flowery language and his father in the realm of egyptology. The plot may be similar to those in the first two volumes , but Rams...more
Aug 19, 2011
Marion Marchetto
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
historical-fiction,
egptology
Intrepid Egyptologist Amelia Peabody and her irrascible husband, who has been dubbed the "Father of Curses" by the Egyptian natives, once again set forth to uncover the treasures of the ancient pharoahs. This time they take along with them their young son nicknamed Ramses and John, a servant in their employ from England.
Relegated to digging in an area deemed 'not worthy' by husband Radcliff Emerson, they are soon in the midst of a complex situation wherein a band of antiquities thieves are bein...more
Relegated to digging in an area deemed 'not worthy' by husband Radcliff Emerson, they are soon in the midst of a complex situation wherein a band of antiquities thieves are bein...more
Amelia and Emerson have wanted to take their son, Ramses, to Egypt for the season and at 5, he is ready to go. He is unbelievably pompous and precocious and adds a great deal of energy to the book. Barbara Rosenblatt's narrations in the audiobook gives him character and charm.
Radcliffe, in his egocentric way, has waited to get a permit for digging too late and they end up with late burials and mounds of rubble for the season. This is especially galling since they are almost in the shadow of Dash...more
Radcliffe, in his egocentric way, has waited to get a permit for digging too late and they end up with late burials and mounds of rubble for the season. This is especially galling since they are almost in the shadow of Dash...more
What I found incredibly funny was the way Peabody talks about Emerson in the story as if he were a woman, with his fussing and hysterics and sensitivity of emotion and soft heart...yet outwardly of course he is blustery, always yelling and cursing, and quite manly. I found the more in depth description of archeological methods and techniques informative and interesting, as well as the description of the various settings, especially the Cairo's bazaars.
Normally Peter's characters are likeable or...more
Normally Peter's characters are likeable or...more
This time Ramses accompanies his parents to Egypt and I have to admit I was apprehensive. Children usually annoy me in books (targeted for adults) because they're there simply to be cute and adorable. Ramses however turned out to be an actual character and I loved him. He's everything but cute and adorable, a clever little thing with a brain. Sure, he's not exactly a normal child but an adult in a child's form and that's probably why I liked him so much.
Amelia and Emerson seem like an old marrie...more
Amelia and Emerson seem like an old marrie...more
The third book is usually where a series either ends or wanders into an uninteresting vein. Not so with The Mummy Case. With the introduction of a criminal mastermind and a tangled knot of plot lines, Ms. Peters lures the reader into yet another wild caper and ensures we'll read many books to come.
There are a few tactics Ms. Peters employs with regard to her narrative that I find significantly help the story remain interesting. Time is very fluid in her novel. There are times when every second...more
There are a few tactics Ms. Peters employs with regard to her narrative that I find significantly help the story remain interesting. Time is very fluid in her novel. There are times when every second...more
Ms Amelia Peabody's philosophy... on marriage "Marriage in my view should be a balanced state between equal adversaries."
Amelia & Radcliffe Emerson... both strong minded & opinionated... not always on the same track... but with a mature & erotic love...
And they return to Egypt with Ramses... who is quite a handful... curious, resourceful, and literal (like Amelia Bedelia)... Mommy Amelia has to be very specific about what he can or cannot do, and he is constantly looking for ways aro...more
Amelia & Radcliffe Emerson... both strong minded & opinionated... not always on the same track... but with a mature & erotic love...
And they return to Egypt with Ramses... who is quite a handful... curious, resourceful, and literal (like Amelia Bedelia)... Mommy Amelia has to be very specific about what he can or cannot do, and he is constantly looking for ways aro...more
This is one of the better Amelia Peabody series, if for no other reason than to imagine having a child like Ramses. What a cutie! But what a challenge to raise someone so idiosyncratic. Actually, I wish I knew one like him--but only as a neighbor, not as a responsibility.
The book itself concerns the excavation by Amelia and Emerson (and Ramses, don't forget Ramses) of a so called pyramid in the shadow of the Black Pyramid, after which they lust.
In addition to the usual contretemps between the tw...more
The book itself concerns the excavation by Amelia and Emerson (and Ramses, don't forget Ramses) of a so called pyramid in the shadow of the Black Pyramid, after which they lust.
In addition to the usual contretemps between the tw...more
Typical Amelia Peabody fare. It's funny, witty, smart, and ridiculous. I think the series gets more ridiculous with each installment. It's like Peters is making fun of "sensationalist" mysteries a la Agatha Christie. It's a fun read; I laughed and smiled a lot. Peters investigates a murder, thefts, and an off-putting group of missionaries. In the process, she gets robbed, duped, and dumped in a hidden tomb. But this only fuels her desire for detective work. Of course.
Most of the comic relief/rid...more
Most of the comic relief/rid...more
Another hilarious Amelia Peabody mystery. I love this series, but I'm afraid this one doesn't get five stars because I felt the character development went a little off-kilter. At some points, each of the characters behaves in an annoying manner, making you want to shake them. Of course, this is true in every normal family, so perhaps I'm not seeing the true vision of Ms. Peters work -- to display a normal family with normal variability of personalities cooperating together to do important things...more
Quite a bit less engaging than the first book, The Mummy Case suffered very badly from an overdose of pompousness. From Ramses stilted sentences, and seriously WHAT 7 or 8 year old child sounds like a 50 year old college professor (and the speech impediment was just freaking annoying) to Amelia and even Emerson, whom we expect to be stuffy. Amelia's narrative bordered on self righteous and I rapidly tired of her know-it-allness. Not to mention she spent most of the book cutting off every male wh...more
The Amelia Peabody books are fun little mysteries. I would not read them more than once, and I don't know if I could read them back to back, but I do enjoy them when I pick them up. However, I have so many books on my To Be Read list that I'm really not sure when I'll pick another one up.
I was in the mood for a mystery, and this book somewhat satisfied that. The mystery didn't really play a central role in the book though. It would pop up here and there, but it certainly didn't seem front and ce...more
I was in the mood for a mystery, and this book somewhat satisfied that. The mystery didn't really play a central role in the book though. It would pop up here and there, but it certainly didn't seem front and ce...more
I love the Amelia Peabody books. I'm playing catch-up on the series and wish I could simply find a quiet corner somewhere and blaze through them all.
Amelia herself is such a great study in character development--I can just see her stomping around the desert in her Turkish trousers. In The Mummy Case, there's the delicious addition of Ramses, spawn of Amelia and Emerson, now old enough to travel to Egypt with them. I wanted the preternaturally precocious Ramses in every scene.
Mysterious manuscrip...more
Amelia herself is such a great study in character development--I can just see her stomping around the desert in her Turkish trousers. In The Mummy Case, there's the delicious addition of Ramses, spawn of Amelia and Emerson, now old enough to travel to Egypt with them. I wanted the preternaturally precocious Ramses in every scene.
Mysterious manuscrip...more
The third book in the Elizabeth Peters series that features the intrepid Amelia Peabody and her husband, Radcliffe Emerson... and our first expedition with Walter "Ramses" Emerson, their precocious young son. Emerson had promised Peabody that this season, she would have pyramids... but when he's unable to obtain the rights to excavate at Dahshoor, he grumblingly accepts a rather poor site called Mazghunah, where the pyramids of Dahshoor are close enough to taunt them. Mazghunah appears to be a b...more
The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters
William Morrow, 1985
308 pages
Mystery; Amelia Peabody
Third in series
Source: Library
Summary: Amelia, her husband Emerson, and their son Ramses arrive in Egypt for another season of excavation and end up entwined in webs of murder, thievery, and religion.
Thoughts: I love the style in which this is written. I love Amelia as a character and her descriptions of everything. She is eminently sensible and yet romantic in her relationship with Emerson and she's very smart...more
William Morrow, 1985
308 pages
Mystery; Amelia Peabody
Third in series
Source: Library
Summary: Amelia, her husband Emerson, and their son Ramses arrive in Egypt for another season of excavation and end up entwined in webs of murder, thievery, and religion.
Thoughts: I love the style in which this is written. I love Amelia as a character and her descriptions of everything. She is eminently sensible and yet romantic in her relationship with Emerson and she's very smart...more
Amelia is finally off to Egpyt with her son (and of course his cat) in tow. They have been thwarted a few times due to Evelyn, but not this year. Emerson has promised Peabody pyramids, and pyramids she shall have... even if, at the end of the day, they get ones that are barely deserving of the name. Because once again Emerson is at loggerheads with the man who distributes the firman's... so to Mazghunah they must go, while De Morgan assigns himself the firman to the desirous pyramids of Dahshoor...more
Amelia and Emerson are disappointed at not receiving permission to dig at the desireable Pyramids of Dahshoor, but instead, are relegated to the very minor ruins at Mazghuna.
Of course, the presemce of Amelia guarantees that the season in Egypt will not be a dull one. The excitement this time includes a dead antiquities dealer, a missing scrap of papyrus, a missing mummy, a trio of suspicious missionaries, and many episodes involving Amelia's annoyingly precicious and pedantic son, Ramses.
I loved...more
Of course, the presemce of Amelia guarantees that the season in Egypt will not be a dull one. The excitement this time includes a dead antiquities dealer, a missing scrap of papyrus, a missing mummy, a trio of suspicious missionaries, and many episodes involving Amelia's annoyingly precicious and pedantic son, Ramses.
I loved...more
The Mummy Case is the third novel in the Amelia Peabody series and once again we open with the Emerson’s in England. They plan to return to Egypt and dig at the pyramids of Dahshoor, leaving behind their precocious son Ramses with Emerson’s brother Walter and his wife Evelyn. Evelyn has just suffered a ‘disappointment’ (miscarriage) and having Ramses comforts her. Plans are thwarted when Evelyn falls pregnant again and even Emerson and Amelia can see that it will be impossible for them to leave...more
3 likes · like · see review
The good news is, I'm beginning to enjoy these books more and more with each reading that I complete in this series. Although this is the third book in the series and I had very mixed feelings about its predecessors, I'm finding that I enjoy the characters in Peters' books more with each reading. The Mummy Case picks up where Curse of the Pharaohs leaves off, with Amelia and her husband traveling to Egypt to excavate a site, but this time bringing along their precocious son, Ramses, who adds a d...more
Not the most entertaining of the series, but still a fun read all the same. I liked the solution to this particular mystery and like the book before it, wraps up the story well with still leaving interesting questions unanswered. The minor characters in this novel are also really well interesting and fun in their own respect. Elizabeth Peters has a great talent for making all her characters very life like no matter how little they are involved in the narrative.
We also get introduced to Ramses in...more
We also get introduced to Ramses in...more
This is an amusing series that doesn't take itself too seriously. I liked the addition of Amelia and Emerson's son, Ramses, as a character. Other reviewers have pointed out that his vocabulary and intelligence is too complex for a five year old, but I think that all Peters' characters are a bit larger than life. Once I accepted that, I got over the fact that Ramses can translate Coptic text and that Amelia seems cold toward her son in comparison to how she treats her husband (although by the end...more
In this book, because of Emerson's tardiness in booking a location, he and Peabody are doomed to excavate in a most unpromising area of Egypt, where they find nothing of interest. However, they find themselves under attack by two different people, operating independently, for reasons that are unknown until the end of the story.
The story is quite readable and exciting, and is enlivened by the presence of their son Ramses, aged seven, who is alarmingly and implausibly precocious, but a good source...more
The story is quite readable and exciting, and is enlivened by the presence of their son Ramses, aged seven, who is alarmingly and implausibly precocious, but a good source...more
Oct 29, 2011
Meredith
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Those who like no nonsense women. Those who like happily marrieds in adventures.
Shelves:
adventure,
audio,
detective,
fiction,
humor,
mystery,
novel-of-manners,
period-piece,
series,
romance
Side note about the recording - there are a few places where suddenly someone else is reading. My best guess is that there was damage to the original recording, so instead of rerecording the whole thing, they recorded the bits that were needed. The splicing's well done, but the voice is definitely different.
The irrepressible Ramses is an enjoyable addition to the adventures. In particular, the lists of rules and do-not-dos his parents provide, only for Ramses to find a loop hole "You told me to...more
The irrepressible Ramses is an enjoyable addition to the adventures. In particular, the lists of rules and do-not-dos his parents provide, only for Ramses to find a loop hole "You told me to...more
As good as I remembered even if I had forgotten under what disguise Sethos was hiding. This was an enjoyable romp, Ramses first visit to Egypt, yes, he is a child genius but it's Ramses and I love this little boy to pieces.
So the plot, Amelia and Emerson are digging at Mazaghouna because Emerson promised Amelia pyramids and was angling for Dashour but De Morgan took them for himself. So they end up at these totally not pyramid, pyramid site right next to De Morgan. We get delusional missionarie...more
So the plot, Amelia and Emerson are digging at Mazaghouna because Emerson promised Amelia pyramids and was angling for Dashour but De Morgan took them for himself. So they end up at these totally not pyramid, pyramid site right next to De Morgan. We get delusional missionarie...more
I'm not exactly sure what to say about this book. I really enjoyed the mystery in this one. It kept me guessing till the end. But I just had a really hard time with one of the characters... Ramses.
His character is completely unbelievable. He's not a precocious, energetic child. He's an undisciplined brat. And the relationship between him and Amelia makes me cringe. I understand she is not an affectionate person, but the author seems to go to great lengths to make sure that you understand that Am...more
His character is completely unbelievable. He's not a precocious, energetic child. He's an undisciplined brat. And the relationship between him and Amelia makes me cringe. I understand she is not an affectionate person, but the author seems to go to great lengths to make sure that you understand that Am...more
3/10
Ora ho capito a chi si è ispirata Gail Carriger per il suo "Soulless" (e seguiti): Alexia Tarabotti è la gemella separata alla nascita di Amelia Peabody, a livello di poter chiedere un risarcimento per plagio. Entrambe sono (nominalmente) bruttine, non più in età da marito, volitive, ben fornite frontalmente, con la lingua sciolta, non sopportano le crinoline e hanno un debole per il parasole usato come oggetto contundente. Entrambe si innamorano di uomini testardi, enormi e dal temperamento...more
Ora ho capito a chi si è ispirata Gail Carriger per il suo "Soulless" (e seguiti): Alexia Tarabotti è la gemella separata alla nascita di Amelia Peabody, a livello di poter chiedere un risarcimento per plagio. Entrambe sono (nominalmente) bruttine, non più in età da marito, volitive, ben fornite frontalmente, con la lingua sciolta, non sopportano le crinoline e hanno un debole per il parasole usato come oggetto contundente. Entrambe si innamorano di uomini testardi, enormi e dal temperamento...more
Jan 06, 2013
Hayes
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
read-in-2013,
tbr-challenge-2013
Good, third installment in this fun series. Makes me want to go out immediately and buy a parasol. How can I possibly live without a parasol?
6 likes · like · see review
I love this book (Ramses is probably hovering at just about his most delightfully obnoxious, though he may be more so in the next two books), but I really, really regret downloading this audio version from the library instead of buying Barbara Rosenblatt's superlative one at Audible. Rosenblatt is just so far above and beyond this narrator that it's like night and day. Add to that the obvious splicing in of rerecorded sentences in which her voice sounds completely different from the one she adop...more
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Elizabeth Peters is a pen name of Barbara Mertz. She also writes as Barbara Michaels as well as her own name. Born and brought up in Illinois, she earned her Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago. Mertz was named Grand Master at the inaugural Anthony Awards in 1986 and Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America at the Edgar Awards in 1998. She lives in a historic farmhouse in Fred...more
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“Marriage, in my view, should be a balanced stalemate between equal adversaries.”
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Mar 20, 2012 12:22pm