Elizabeth Peters is one of my favorite authors. I have been waiting for the right time to start this series because it's long, and still continuing, but now I am ready to jump into Amelia Peabody's world. She's an independent (an independantly wealthy) Egyptologist in the 1880's who, for her time, was fearless and progressive.
What I like most about this book - and series to come - is that the character evolves as people really do. She marries, has a son, and changes locations but the adventures and mysteries continue. This is rare in series - often authors will drag out the mystery of which man the leading lady will choose, and it wears on the reader. Here, all that is taken care of relatively quickly, and all that remains ahead is good mystery and adventure. In that aspect it reminds me of the Thin Man movies in this regard - and the banter is just as good.

I noticed a few typos in this book, and sometimes Peter's writing is a little heavy-handed and trying-too-hard-to-be-intellectual. But I'll take this any day given the genre, which is filled with too much light-and-airy most of the time.