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Amelia Peabody #18
Tomb of the Golden Bird
Banned forever from the eastern end of the Valley of the Kings, eminent Egyptologist Radcliffe Emerson's desperate attempt to regain digging rights backfires—and his dream of unearthing the tomb of the little-known king Tutankhamon is dashed. Now Emerson, his archaeologist wife, Amelia Peabody, and their family must watch from the sidelines as Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter "discover" the greatest Egyptian treasure of all time. But the Emersons' own less impressive excavations are interrupted when father and son Ramses are lured into a trap by a strange group of villains ominously demanding answers to a question neither man comprehends. And it will fall to the ever-intrepid Amelia to protect her endangered family—and perhaps her nemesis as well—from a devastating truth hidden uncomfortably close to home . . . and from a nefarious plot that threatens the peace of the entire region.
576 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 28, 2006
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3388 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Peters
178 books3,296 followersElizabeth Peters is a pen name of Barbara Mertz. She also wrote 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 lived in a historic farmhouse in Frederick, western Maryland until her death.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 473 reviews
October 13, 2021
Chronologically this is the final book in the series and it was a sad moment when I reached the final page. All the ends are tied up. Amelia and Emerson are approaching retirement age and Ramses and Nefret are needing to put their young family first. All good things must end and that includes great family sagas like this one.
In Tomb of the Golden Bird the family are present at one of the greatest archaeological discoveries ever, that of the tomb of Tutankhamun. The author presents historical facts such as the inclusion of the very real Howard Carter, and mixes them nicely with the presence of her fictional family. I did feel sorry for Emerson though. All those years of discovering robbed out tombs and then he misses out on the glories of King Tut.
One of the best bits of this book was the family Christmas which was ideal for a final book. The family all came together including David and Sennia visiting from England. Sethos was included, Abdullah had plenty to say (if only to Amelia) and Nefret had a happy announcement to make. I really enjoyed the activities of the twins and the way they resemble their father. I remember how precocious and intelligent Ramses was and also how badly behaved. It seems that Charla has inherited the mischief gene and David John the gifted one.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my time spent with Amelia Peabody and her family. One day I will go back and read the two books which were published later but relate to the middle years. For now though I will be happy/sad with arriving at the conclusion of the series.
In Tomb of the Golden Bird the family are present at one of the greatest archaeological discoveries ever, that of the tomb of Tutankhamun. The author presents historical facts such as the inclusion of the very real Howard Carter, and mixes them nicely with the presence of her fictional family. I did feel sorry for Emerson though. All those years of discovering robbed out tombs and then he misses out on the glories of King Tut.
One of the best bits of this book was the family Christmas which was ideal for a final book. The family all came together including David and Sennia visiting from England. Sethos was included, Abdullah had plenty to say (if only to Amelia) and Nefret had a happy announcement to make. I really enjoyed the activities of the twins and the way they resemble their father. I remember how precocious and intelligent Ramses was and also how badly behaved. It seems that Charla has inherited the mischief gene and David John the gifted one.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my time spent with Amelia Peabody and her family. One day I will go back and read the two books which were published later but relate to the middle years. For now though I will be happy/sad with arriving at the conclusion of the series.
September 6, 2013
Elizabeth Peters is back! I love the whole huge family and endless list of characters! This book is meant to be the unfinished and unofficial end to the Amelia Peabody series. Amelia uses one of her famous lists to check off all of the loose plot elements that have been hanging out for several books now. I LOVED it, and especially appreciated all of those little surprises that make it a true Elizabeth Peters success.
I’ve been reading these books for so long that I decided it was time to settle some of my long unanswered questions. I skimmed Amelia Peabody’s Egypt and was shocked that fiction and fact were shamelessly combined. So I began my search for the facts.
Elizabeth Peters is in fact Barbara Mertz, with a PhD in Egyptology. Elizabeth and Peter are her two children. She has written three nonfiction books using her real name. She has also written under the name Barbara Michaels. In total she’s written over seventy books.
Her heroine, Amelia Peabody, is inspired by Victorian amateur Egyptologist Amelia B. Edwards, Lady Hilda Petrie: the wife of British Egyptologist Sir William Flinders Petrie, and is semi-autobiographical, laced with the feminism and feelings of a woman who was a pioneer in her time, receiving a doctorate degree from a prestigious university in a decidedly unfeminine subject in 1952. All three of her inspiring sources were pioneers in their own way, breaking through barriers of sexism and society.
Amelia’s husband, Radcliffe Emerson, is inspired by Sir William Flinders Petrie. Sir Petrie’s exacting excavation methods were unprecedented and set the methodology for future archaeologists. The Emersons’ discoveries (when they were actual real discoveries) were in fact discovered by Petrie, Carter, or some of the other real archaeologists who frequent the pages of Peters’ novels.
Here’s my research (all done online):
http://www.bookbrowse.com/author_inte...
An interview with Elizabeth Peters
Copyright mpmbooks.com 2004, used with permission.
Are any of the main characters in the Amelia Peabody mysteries based on real people?
The only main characters which were inspired by real people are Amelia Peabody (based on Victorian amateur Egyptologist Amelia B. Edwards) and Emerson (whose methodology has been attributed to William Flinders Petrie).
from: http://surrey-shore.freeservers.com/A...
Amelia Peabody Emerson
by Suzanne Snyder
Elizabeth Peters, herself an accomplished Egyptologist with a Ph.D. in the subject from the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute. Under her real name, Dr. Barbara Mertz, she has written two scholarly books on Egypt and Egyptology: Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs: A Popular History of Ancient Egypt and Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt. As Elizabeth Peters (cobbling together the names of her two children) she conveys her immense knowledge of the subject to us in a witty, easy-to-understand style, mostly through Amelia’s succession of journals
In the pages of the Amelia Peabody Mysteries, we also meet real historical persons, such as Gaston Maspero, Sir Evelyn Baring, Howard Carter, and Emil Brugsch, voices of the archaeological community in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth centuries.
Amelia gets her name from Amelia B. Edwards, who wrote a Victorian travel book, A Thousand Miles Up the Nile. Amelia Peabody’s nickname, “Sitt Hakim,” or “Lady Doctor,” was the name the Egyptians gave Amelia Edwards’ own traveling companion on their Nile journeys. The Nile sail/houseboat (or dahabiyeh) that both the fictional and real Amelia traveled upon was called the Philae.
Amelia Peabody’s character, however, was based more closely on that of Lady Hilda Petrie, the wife of British Egyptologist Sir William Flinders Petrie. According to the Web article “Digging up Clues with Amelia Peabody (Emerson),” by “L.G.,” Hilda Petrie “took off her skirt before being lowered into the interior of a pyramid; further items of clothing were removed as she and her husband explored the inner chambers.”
The Emerson brothers’ excavations at Amarna, Elizabeth Peters tells us in an Authors’ Note at the beginning of Crocodile on the Sandbank, were based on those of Hilda Petrie’s husband, Sir William Flinders Petrie. In Elizabeth Peters’ words, “I have taken the liberty of attributing some of his discoveries—and his ‘advanced’ ideas about methodology—to my fictitious archaeologists. The painted pavement found by Petrie was given the treatment I have described by Petrie himself.” (The treatment was covering the pavement with a mixture of tapioca and water, thus preserving the painted plaster.) Emerson is said to physically resemble Petrie in his younger years, being “darkly handsome, black-haired and bearded . . . he shares, as well, the famous Egyptologist’s meticulousness, disregard for comfort, tireless energy, cast-iron stomach and competitive nature, plus his less attractive characteristics—quick temper, stubbornness and dogmatism.” (“Digging Up Clues,” p. 5.) Petrie was called “the Father of Pots,” while Emerson is called “the Father of Curses.”
Elizabeth Peters has also written 27 books under another name, Barbara Michaels. These are supernatural thrillers; the only one of which I personally have read is Ammie, Come Home, set in an old house in Georgetown in the Washington, D.C., area. Without gore and violence, these books still manage to make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. As the author herself says, “I scared myself into fits writing Ammie, Come Home . . . I tell you, around 1:30, when the darkness closed in and there was nobody awake, I would jump right out of my socks at the slightest sound” (“The Unofficial Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels/Barbara Mertz Page,” by Monica Sheridan, p. 3.)
From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_P...
Character inspirations
Most of the archaeological achievements attributed to the Emerson-Peabodys were, in reality, accomplished by many of the archaeologists who pass through the novels as supporting characters. For example, the excavations that Emerson and Walter are undertaking at Amarna in 1884 (in Crocodile on the Sandbank) are based on those conducted by Sir William Flinders Petrie in 1891. Peters has indicated that the character of Radcliffe Emerson is based in part on Petrie, whose meticulous excavation habits were legendary and set a new standard for archaeological digs.
Amelia herself was partly inspired by Amelia Edwards, a Victorian novelist, travel writer, and Egyptologist, whose best-selling 1873 book, A Thousand Miles up the Nile[3] is similar in both tone and content to Amelia Emerson's narration. The character was also semi-autobiographical: pressures on Amelia to marry and abandon her Egyptological career in the first book were based on Peters's own experience in academia.
In other instances, fictional accomplishments are ascribed to Amelia and Emerson. For example, the tomb of the 17th Dynasty Queen Tetisheri, whose discovery and excavation form the basis of the plot in The Hippopotamus Pool has, in fact, never been found. Most scholars suggest that the tomb - assuming that it still survives - would be found in the general area where the Emerson-Peabodys discover it. The intact Old Kingdom burial found in The Falcon at the Portal is also fictional; in fact, no intact burials from the Old Kingdom period have ever been found.
In a 2003 book talk at the Library of Congress, Elizabeth Peters revealed that her overall plan for the Amelia Peabody series was to continue the series chronologically through World War I and end with events surrounding the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. This stated goal was accomplished with the publication of Tomb of the Golden Bird in 2006. The events of that book wrapped up most of the series' loose plot lines, although it did not include a definitive ending to the series itself.
In the same talk, Peters suggested that any future installments after this point would "fill in the gaps" in the series' chronology, as she has done with Guardian of the Horizon and A River in the Sky which fill part of the four-year gap between The Ape Who Guards the Balance and The Falcon at the Portal.
In the final volume of the Vicky Bliss series, The Laughter of Dead Kings, the fictional editor of Amelia Peabody's journals makes a cameo appearance while looking for more of Amelia's journals. By the end of the book, she has acquired at least three more of the "missing journals" to document the adventures of the Peabody-Emersons.
While this appeared to suggest Peters's intention to continue the series (which was by far her most commercially successful), only one additional volume was published before her death in 2013.
From Wikipedia about Amelia Peabody http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_P...
Amelia's age
Amelia's age is initially given as 32 in Crocodile on the Sandbank. In a 1994 article, Elizabeth Peters discussed the obstacle this presented:
"If I had intended Crocodile to be the first in a series, I probably wouldn't have been as specific about dates. Not only did Amelia inform the reader of her age (curse her!), but historical events mentioned in the book tied it to a particular year. As the series continued, there was no way I could get around this, or fudge the date of Ramses' birth, or keep him and his parents from aging a year every twelve months."[1]
According to this timeline, Amelia would be seventy years old in the eighteenth book, Tomb of the Golden Bird. In The Hippopotamus Pool, however, the Introduction contains what is supposed to be an excerpt from "The National Autobiographical Dictionary (45th edition)", in which Amelia herself states that she was her late twenties at the time of her first visit to Egypt. The statement is footnoted, and the footnote provides specific instructions not to question the discrepancy (pp. xii and xvi.). In Seeing a Large Cat, Emerson's age at the time they married is given as 29.
The latest chronological mention of Amelia is in the compendium Amelia Peabody's Egypt: A Compendium, which mentions her taking a souvenir from her visit to Egypt in 1939, as war is looming and she was uncertain that she would ever return. Her age is given as 87, which would be correct according to the original timeline.
I’ve been reading these books for so long that I decided it was time to settle some of my long unanswered questions. I skimmed Amelia Peabody’s Egypt and was shocked that fiction and fact were shamelessly combined. So I began my search for the facts.
Elizabeth Peters is in fact Barbara Mertz, with a PhD in Egyptology. Elizabeth and Peter are her two children. She has written three nonfiction books using her real name. She has also written under the name Barbara Michaels. In total she’s written over seventy books.
Her heroine, Amelia Peabody, is inspired by Victorian amateur Egyptologist Amelia B. Edwards, Lady Hilda Petrie: the wife of British Egyptologist Sir William Flinders Petrie, and is semi-autobiographical, laced with the feminism and feelings of a woman who was a pioneer in her time, receiving a doctorate degree from a prestigious university in a decidedly unfeminine subject in 1952. All three of her inspiring sources were pioneers in their own way, breaking through barriers of sexism and society.
Amelia’s husband, Radcliffe Emerson, is inspired by Sir William Flinders Petrie. Sir Petrie’s exacting excavation methods were unprecedented and set the methodology for future archaeologists. The Emersons’ discoveries (when they were actual real discoveries) were in fact discovered by Petrie, Carter, or some of the other real archaeologists who frequent the pages of Peters’ novels.
Here’s my research (all done online):
http://www.bookbrowse.com/author_inte...
An interview with Elizabeth Peters
Copyright mpmbooks.com 2004, used with permission.
Are any of the main characters in the Amelia Peabody mysteries based on real people?
The only main characters which were inspired by real people are Amelia Peabody (based on Victorian amateur Egyptologist Amelia B. Edwards) and Emerson (whose methodology has been attributed to William Flinders Petrie).
from: http://surrey-shore.freeservers.com/A...
Amelia Peabody Emerson
by Suzanne Snyder
Elizabeth Peters, herself an accomplished Egyptologist with a Ph.D. in the subject from the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute. Under her real name, Dr. Barbara Mertz, she has written two scholarly books on Egypt and Egyptology: Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs: A Popular History of Ancient Egypt and Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt. As Elizabeth Peters (cobbling together the names of her two children) she conveys her immense knowledge of the subject to us in a witty, easy-to-understand style, mostly through Amelia’s succession of journals
In the pages of the Amelia Peabody Mysteries, we also meet real historical persons, such as Gaston Maspero, Sir Evelyn Baring, Howard Carter, and Emil Brugsch, voices of the archaeological community in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth centuries.
Amelia gets her name from Amelia B. Edwards, who wrote a Victorian travel book, A Thousand Miles Up the Nile. Amelia Peabody’s nickname, “Sitt Hakim,” or “Lady Doctor,” was the name the Egyptians gave Amelia Edwards’ own traveling companion on their Nile journeys. The Nile sail/houseboat (or dahabiyeh) that both the fictional and real Amelia traveled upon was called the Philae.
Amelia Peabody’s character, however, was based more closely on that of Lady Hilda Petrie, the wife of British Egyptologist Sir William Flinders Petrie. According to the Web article “Digging up Clues with Amelia Peabody (Emerson),” by “L.G.,” Hilda Petrie “took off her skirt before being lowered into the interior of a pyramid; further items of clothing were removed as she and her husband explored the inner chambers.”
The Emerson brothers’ excavations at Amarna, Elizabeth Peters tells us in an Authors’ Note at the beginning of Crocodile on the Sandbank, were based on those of Hilda Petrie’s husband, Sir William Flinders Petrie. In Elizabeth Peters’ words, “I have taken the liberty of attributing some of his discoveries—and his ‘advanced’ ideas about methodology—to my fictitious archaeologists. The painted pavement found by Petrie was given the treatment I have described by Petrie himself.” (The treatment was covering the pavement with a mixture of tapioca and water, thus preserving the painted plaster.) Emerson is said to physically resemble Petrie in his younger years, being “darkly handsome, black-haired and bearded . . . he shares, as well, the famous Egyptologist’s meticulousness, disregard for comfort, tireless energy, cast-iron stomach and competitive nature, plus his less attractive characteristics—quick temper, stubbornness and dogmatism.” (“Digging Up Clues,” p. 5.) Petrie was called “the Father of Pots,” while Emerson is called “the Father of Curses.”
Elizabeth Peters has also written 27 books under another name, Barbara Michaels. These are supernatural thrillers; the only one of which I personally have read is Ammie, Come Home, set in an old house in Georgetown in the Washington, D.C., area. Without gore and violence, these books still manage to make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. As the author herself says, “I scared myself into fits writing Ammie, Come Home . . . I tell you, around 1:30, when the darkness closed in and there was nobody awake, I would jump right out of my socks at the slightest sound” (“The Unofficial Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels/Barbara Mertz Page,” by Monica Sheridan, p. 3.)
From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_P...
Character inspirations
Most of the archaeological achievements attributed to the Emerson-Peabodys were, in reality, accomplished by many of the archaeologists who pass through the novels as supporting characters. For example, the excavations that Emerson and Walter are undertaking at Amarna in 1884 (in Crocodile on the Sandbank) are based on those conducted by Sir William Flinders Petrie in 1891. Peters has indicated that the character of Radcliffe Emerson is based in part on Petrie, whose meticulous excavation habits were legendary and set a new standard for archaeological digs.
Amelia herself was partly inspired by Amelia Edwards, a Victorian novelist, travel writer, and Egyptologist, whose best-selling 1873 book, A Thousand Miles up the Nile[3] is similar in both tone and content to Amelia Emerson's narration. The character was also semi-autobiographical: pressures on Amelia to marry and abandon her Egyptological career in the first book were based on Peters's own experience in academia.
In other instances, fictional accomplishments are ascribed to Amelia and Emerson. For example, the tomb of the 17th Dynasty Queen Tetisheri, whose discovery and excavation form the basis of the plot in The Hippopotamus Pool has, in fact, never been found. Most scholars suggest that the tomb - assuming that it still survives - would be found in the general area where the Emerson-Peabodys discover it. The intact Old Kingdom burial found in The Falcon at the Portal is also fictional; in fact, no intact burials from the Old Kingdom period have ever been found.
In a 2003 book talk at the Library of Congress, Elizabeth Peters revealed that her overall plan for the Amelia Peabody series was to continue the series chronologically through World War I and end with events surrounding the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. This stated goal was accomplished with the publication of Tomb of the Golden Bird in 2006. The events of that book wrapped up most of the series' loose plot lines, although it did not include a definitive ending to the series itself.
In the same talk, Peters suggested that any future installments after this point would "fill in the gaps" in the series' chronology, as she has done with Guardian of the Horizon and A River in the Sky which fill part of the four-year gap between The Ape Who Guards the Balance and The Falcon at the Portal.
In the final volume of the Vicky Bliss series, The Laughter of Dead Kings, the fictional editor of Amelia Peabody's journals makes a cameo appearance while looking for more of Amelia's journals. By the end of the book, she has acquired at least three more of the "missing journals" to document the adventures of the Peabody-Emersons.
While this appeared to suggest Peters's intention to continue the series (which was by far her most commercially successful), only one additional volume was published before her death in 2013.
From Wikipedia about Amelia Peabody http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_P...
Amelia's age
Amelia's age is initially given as 32 in Crocodile on the Sandbank. In a 1994 article, Elizabeth Peters discussed the obstacle this presented:
"If I had intended Crocodile to be the first in a series, I probably wouldn't have been as specific about dates. Not only did Amelia inform the reader of her age (curse her!), but historical events mentioned in the book tied it to a particular year. As the series continued, there was no way I could get around this, or fudge the date of Ramses' birth, or keep him and his parents from aging a year every twelve months."[1]
According to this timeline, Amelia would be seventy years old in the eighteenth book, Tomb of the Golden Bird. In The Hippopotamus Pool, however, the Introduction contains what is supposed to be an excerpt from "The National Autobiographical Dictionary (45th edition)", in which Amelia herself states that she was her late twenties at the time of her first visit to Egypt. The statement is footnoted, and the footnote provides specific instructions not to question the discrepancy (pp. xii and xvi.). In Seeing a Large Cat, Emerson's age at the time they married is given as 29.
The latest chronological mention of Amelia is in the compendium Amelia Peabody's Egypt: A Compendium, which mentions her taking a souvenir from her visit to Egypt in 1939, as war is looming and she was uncertain that she would ever return. Her age is given as 87, which would be correct according to the original timeline.
December 28, 2011
Last year when I read Elizabeth Peters' The Serpent on the Crown, I'd remarked that it really rather felt like someone else had ghost-written it for her. I am bummed to observe that the next installment in the long-running Amelia Peabody series, which has been near and dear to my heart for ages on end, really rather feels the same way. Not only were all the familiar characters just flat, flat, flat, not only was most of the on-screen activity just a lot of conversation reacting to the few suspenseful bits of the story, but there were also a couple of mistakes in the prose that historically I've trusted Peters to just not do.
Spelling "intelligence" with three l's was one example. But the one that jolted me harder out of the story was this. If you've been reading the Amelia Peabodies, you know that all the novels from about halfway through the series onward alternate between first-person POV for Amelia and third-person for her son Ramses. In this book, in one of the Ramses sections, I found a sentence where suddenly the paragraph was talking about "our expedition" doing this and that... as if somehow Peters had forgotten that she was in a Ramses section rather than an Amelia one.
Either of those errors are certainly things I could see any writer doing--even the very best ones. And maybe I'm just more sensitive to screwups like that in text, maybe the copyeditor just happened to miss those when the book was being edited... but. Between these two little screwups and the overall flatness of the prose, it just really made the book not feel like Peters at all.
So what was this book about? Mostly, it was about Howard Carter discovering King Tut's tomb--and how the Emersons were on the sidelines of it without really being involved in that dig at all. While I do appreciate how Peters arranges things to respect actual history and keep them out of the direct limelight with those goings on, it also made for kind of frustrating reading--since you only really got to see the wonders of what was in that tomb in brief and scattered glimpses. Which really, really diminished the dramatic impact. The other plotline, involving conspiracies and coup and assassination attempts, suffered from the same problem as in The Serpent on the Crown. We see very little actual action involved with this plot, and a whole lot of Emerson Clan As Talking Heads Having Endless Councils of War. There are way too many councils, and just not enough war, as it were.
Now, all these things said, there are several things here that also make me cut the book some slack. For one thing, Peters is now 80 years old, and that's a venerable age indeed to still be writing, especially working on your eighteenth book in a long-running, best-selling series (not to mention HOLY CRAP, eighteenth book, how on earth do you keep the series lively after so many installments?). For another, Amelia herself as well as her husband are aging; the first Amelia book was set way back in 1884, and this one's in 1922. For a third, the Emerson Clan is definitely a clan by this point in the timeline, with not only Amelia and Emerson, but also Walter and Evelyn, Ramses and Nefret and their twins, the adopted girl Sennia, Ramses' best bud David and his wife Lia (Walter and Evelyn's daughter). So all in all I kind of can't blame Peters for the shift over to more domestic plots... but damn, I miss the days when Amelia and Emerson were still young and vigorous, and Ramses was getting old enough to be an active force as well.
Last but not least it is worth mentioning that according to things I've read, Peters has announced that she won't write any more Amelia Peabodies after the 1922 discovery of King Tut's tomb... though it is unclear whether this means "no more Amelia Peabodies at all" or just "no more set chronologically after 1922". The ending of this one, given this, is rather sweet and aww-inducing and a nice note on which to go out. But I'll have to admit that if Peters is losing the luster off her writing--or if, as I suspect, she's actually got a ghost writer now because she's just old--then yeah, it's time to stop.
So all things considered, I think I have to give this book two and a half stars, vs. maybe four for the Amelia Peabodies as a whole. I don't know if I'll re-read this one, but I'll definitely have to give it another shot, maybe next time I do a complete pass through the series.
Spelling "intelligence" with three l's was one example. But the one that jolted me harder out of the story was this. If you've been reading the Amelia Peabodies, you know that all the novels from about halfway through the series onward alternate between first-person POV for Amelia and third-person for her son Ramses. In this book, in one of the Ramses sections, I found a sentence where suddenly the paragraph was talking about "our expedition" doing this and that... as if somehow Peters had forgotten that she was in a Ramses section rather than an Amelia one.
Either of those errors are certainly things I could see any writer doing--even the very best ones. And maybe I'm just more sensitive to screwups like that in text, maybe the copyeditor just happened to miss those when the book was being edited... but. Between these two little screwups and the overall flatness of the prose, it just really made the book not feel like Peters at all.
So what was this book about? Mostly, it was about Howard Carter discovering King Tut's tomb--and how the Emersons were on the sidelines of it without really being involved in that dig at all. While I do appreciate how Peters arranges things to respect actual history and keep them out of the direct limelight with those goings on, it also made for kind of frustrating reading--since you only really got to see the wonders of what was in that tomb in brief and scattered glimpses. Which really, really diminished the dramatic impact. The other plotline, involving conspiracies and coup and assassination attempts, suffered from the same problem as in The Serpent on the Crown. We see very little actual action involved with this plot, and a whole lot of Emerson Clan As Talking Heads Having Endless Councils of War. There are way too many councils, and just not enough war, as it were.
Now, all these things said, there are several things here that also make me cut the book some slack. For one thing, Peters is now 80 years old, and that's a venerable age indeed to still be writing, especially working on your eighteenth book in a long-running, best-selling series (not to mention HOLY CRAP, eighteenth book, how on earth do you keep the series lively after so many installments?). For another, Amelia herself as well as her husband are aging; the first Amelia book was set way back in 1884, and this one's in 1922. For a third, the Emerson Clan is definitely a clan by this point in the timeline, with not only Amelia and Emerson, but also Walter and Evelyn, Ramses and Nefret and their twins, the adopted girl Sennia, Ramses' best bud David and his wife Lia (Walter and Evelyn's daughter). So all in all I kind of can't blame Peters for the shift over to more domestic plots... but damn, I miss the days when Amelia and Emerson were still young and vigorous, and Ramses was getting old enough to be an active force as well.
Last but not least it is worth mentioning that according to things I've read, Peters has announced that she won't write any more Amelia Peabodies after the 1922 discovery of King Tut's tomb... though it is unclear whether this means "no more Amelia Peabodies at all" or just "no more set chronologically after 1922". The ending of this one, given this, is rather sweet and aww-inducing and a nice note on which to go out. But I'll have to admit that if Peters is losing the luster off her writing--or if, as I suspect, she's actually got a ghost writer now because she's just old--then yeah, it's time to stop.
So all things considered, I think I have to give this book two and a half stars, vs. maybe four for the Amelia Peabodies as a whole. I don't know if I'll re-read this one, but I'll definitely have to give it another shot, maybe next time I do a complete pass through the series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 12, 2017
In the 18th book of the Amelia Peabody series, we join the archaeological Emerson family in 1922 Egypt for another digging season. Radcliffe Emerson is sure a major find is still waiting to be discovered in the Valley of the Kings. Professor Emerson is trying to dissuade the wealthy Lord Carnavon and his hired archaeologist, Howard Carter, from continuing their work and giving the concession to him. Unfortunately Carter and Carnavon want one last season, in which they will soon discover where Tutankhamen is buried.
I've been looking forward to this installment of the series for some time. I've always wondered how they would combine the real-life discovery of King Tutankhamen's tomb with the fictional story of “the world's greatest archaeologist”, Radcliffe Emerson. I enjoyed discovering how Amelia manages to get in on the excitement of the discovery and how she and Emerson refuse to be thwarted by Carnavon and Carter. I really enjoyed seeing how the author slipped in the storyline of how Professor Emerson might have been responsible for letting loose the Mummy's curse that ends in the deaths of Carter and Carnavon, along with other members of the crew.
The series is getting older, as is our heroine, Amelia Peabody. It's not quite as exciting as it used to be but I always give an extra star when listening to the audio book version, narrated by the incomparable Barbara Rosenblat. She personifies Amelia to me, much as Jayne Entwhistle personifies Flavia de Luce. If you are a fan of the series, you should enjoy this one.
I've been looking forward to this installment of the series for some time. I've always wondered how they would combine the real-life discovery of King Tutankhamen's tomb with the fictional story of “the world's greatest archaeologist”, Radcliffe Emerson. I enjoyed discovering how Amelia manages to get in on the excitement of the discovery and how she and Emerson refuse to be thwarted by Carnavon and Carter. I really enjoyed seeing how the author slipped in the storyline of how Professor Emerson might have been responsible for letting loose the Mummy's curse that ends in the deaths of Carter and Carnavon, along with other members of the crew.
The series is getting older, as is our heroine, Amelia Peabody. It's not quite as exciting as it used to be but I always give an extra star when listening to the audio book version, narrated by the incomparable Barbara Rosenblat. She personifies Amelia to me, much as Jayne Entwhistle personifies Flavia de Luce. If you are a fan of the series, you should enjoy this one.
August 2, 2017
Reading chronologically this is the last book in the series, and I found that quite sad. So it was a bit hard for me to listen to it dispassionately. :) It's a good story that moves well and doesn't throw in every character who ever appeared, which is a relief. I did find myself wishing Peters had played with history and let Emerson or Cyrus find King Tut's tomb. But it wasn't to be and she did manage to have them on site a lot.
Revisiting the series, I find myself a little less enchanted with this story. Emerson - and the rest of them - behaved really badly and I couldn't help but think they deserved what they got. So having them continue to complain about the unfairness throughout the book began to get on my nerves. Plus, I thought there could have been more plot and less about the tomb, since it wasn't theirs anyway. Another element that bothered me is the relationship between Sethos and Margaret; I dislike them together. Also, and this is a small thing, but why did David leave his family at Christmas to come to England? That's very out of character for him and I really needed a couple of sentences for explanation but never got them.
I originally rated this 4 stars, but now I'd call it 3. There's still a lot to like but some problems decreased my reading pleasure.
Revisiting the series, I find myself a little less enchanted with this story. Emerson - and the rest of them - behaved really badly and I couldn't help but think they deserved what they got. So having them continue to complain about the unfairness throughout the book began to get on my nerves. Plus, I thought there could have been more plot and less about the tomb, since it wasn't theirs anyway. Another element that bothered me is the relationship between Sethos and Margaret; I dislike them together. Also, and this is a small thing, but why did David leave his family at Christmas to come to England? That's very out of character for him and I really needed a couple of sentences for explanation but never got them.
I originally rated this 4 stars, but now I'd call it 3. There's still a lot to like but some problems decreased my reading pleasure.
May 3, 2023
...And this concludes my reading of this series. I don't think I've read a series with this many books in it since I finished the Nancy Drew series 50 or so years ago!
I took some long breaks and read out of order sometimes but in the end I'm soooo happy with how this finished up for me with the team being present for the opening of Tutankhamen's tomb. There were many passages that felt like "goodbye" to me. Even good old Gargery is here. lol.
I loved when all the "regulars" show up at the tomb in the middle of the night. I loved when Ramses and Nefret have a sweet moment of reminiscing about the past. And when Amelia ties things up neatly with a bit of matchmaking at the end. I've enjoyed how the Emerson family accepts and adds members to the clan on the merit of their character and the many positive story arcs that happen in this series. -
One of my favorites of all time.
Kindle loan
I took some long breaks and read out of order sometimes but in the end I'm soooo happy with how this finished up for me with the team being present for the opening of Tutankhamen's tomb. There were many passages that felt like "goodbye" to me. Even good old Gargery is here. lol.
I loved when all the "regulars" show up at the tomb in the middle of the night. I loved when Ramses and Nefret have a sweet moment of reminiscing about the past. And when Amelia ties things up neatly with a bit of matchmaking at the end. I've enjoyed how the Emerson family accepts and adds members to the clan on the merit of their character and the many positive story arcs that happen in this series. -
One of my favorites of all time.
Kindle loan
July 24, 2021
So that's it, I've read the entire Peabody series in chronological order of the characters' lives. This novel takes us to 1922, which was always Peters' target end date (she wrote fill-in books after this one) as it covers the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen.
Slightly, anyway. Don't enter this one (as I did; I hadn't read this volume) expecting to find a romp based around Tut's tomb. What fun that could have been; but we got a rather diffuse plot of the usual kind, with a convoluted mystery, Ramses getting into scrapes, Emerson losing his temper, and the antics of a couple of side characters mostly brought back for nostalgia's sake imo. There is one glorious moment when Amelia actually does something brilliant intellectually rather than just, as Emerson has so often remarked, finding the villain by going out alone until somebody shoots at her, but the humor of the earlier books is flagging by now.
Most of the tension is created by the Sethos-Margaret relationship, and even that is mostly alluded to rather than seen onstage. Another couple of romances are thrown in for good measure, and then we're done. The Emerson clan is beginning to disperse as the younger generation finally start living their own lives, the Emersons must both be approaching their 70s so I imagine them eventually settling down in Kent and writing their memoirs, and nobody has really emerged from the third generation as an interesting character. All has been written; it was a good series, great in parts, and I enjoyed spending the last two years re-reading it. Goodbye, Amelia and Emerson, and may you continue to delight readers (and fire their enthusiasm for Egypt) for generations to come.
Slightly, anyway. Don't enter this one (as I did; I hadn't read this volume) expecting to find a romp based around Tut's tomb. What fun that could have been; but we got a rather diffuse plot of the usual kind, with a convoluted mystery, Ramses getting into scrapes, Emerson losing his temper, and the antics of a couple of side characters mostly brought back for nostalgia's sake imo. There is one glorious moment when Amelia actually does something brilliant intellectually rather than just, as Emerson has so often remarked, finding the villain by going out alone until somebody shoots at her, but the humor of the earlier books is flagging by now.
Most of the tension is created by the Sethos-Margaret relationship, and even that is mostly alluded to rather than seen onstage. Another couple of romances are thrown in for good measure, and then we're done. The Emerson clan is beginning to disperse as the younger generation finally start living their own lives, the Emersons must both be approaching their 70s so I imagine them eventually settling down in Kent and writing their memoirs, and nobody has really emerged from the third generation as an interesting character. All has been written; it was a good series, great in parts, and I enjoyed spending the last two years re-reading it. Goodbye, Amelia and Emerson, and may you continue to delight readers (and fire their enthusiasm for Egypt) for generations to come.
April 2, 2019
The Emersons are back in Egypt for the archeological season of 1922-1923. They are a bit of a loss, however, as David has decided to stay behind in England with his family and career as an artist/illustrator and all the staff they've ever hired turn out to be murderers or victims of murder. Oh dear! After some mysterious happenings in Cairo, the family quickly retreats to Luxor where they feel safe. Emerson hopes to persuade Lord Carnarvon to cede his concession in the East Valley. The Earl and his archeologist, Howard Carter, have no intentions of giving up on finding a lost royal tomb. When they finally achieve success beyond their dreams, Emerson burns bridges with both Carter and his patron and so the Emersons are banned forever from viewing the incredible new tomb, let alone helping with the work. Amelia sets her mind to figuring out another mystery, one that may involve a certain roguish family member. Has he finally reformed for good or is he tempted by the riches of Tutankhamun's tomb?
This is the last entry (chronologically) in the series and it suffers from a disjointed plot where nothing much happens. The archeology plot is certainly fascinating but it gets boring once Emerson loses his temper. That plot is mostly dropped in favor of confusing political intrigue. I wasn't really interested in the politics of the Middle East and Abdullah told Amelia to stay out of it, it doesn't concern her. I did really enjoy the moments between family members. The characters really live and breathe and it is delightful watching them interact.
I love the tender, private moments between Amelia and Emerson. He loves her so much! It's just so sweet but I do understand her frustrations. I find her constant attempts to pick a fight just to initiate more private interludes a little annoying after a time. Amelia is so smug and a bit overconfident at times but that's who she is and why we love her. Emerson's temper really gets the better of him this time. I think I would probably be frustrated as well but what can you do except offer to help? His outbursts of temper were a bit uncalled for.
There's not as much about Ramses and Nefret as in previous books. They're hardly ever alone. There are two big moments when their feelings for each other are allowed to show through. Otherwise the focus is on their children. Charla is a spoiled brat and in need of a good spanking. I find her insanely annoying and would never put up with that kind of behavior. David John is sweet but a little overly precocious. The animals fail to appeal to me as well.
David, Sennia and Gargery come out for Christmas. Sennia is as self-confident as ever but now she has the poise and manners of a young English woman. She still has her loving heart and can never truly be ruined by English schooling. Gargery is too funny and I love how he has his own little action subplot in his old age. David's story surprised me. I can't believe it!
Sethos is a complicated individual. I find him charming at times but also maddening because of his reticence. I trust his story and I trust he is reformed. He is not a very good husband to Margaret. I don't blame her for being angry but she is also partly at fault for their estrangement. I don't really like her much. She's even more smug and annoying than Amelia. Their plot finale is very sweet.
As always Selim, Daoud, Fatima and Kadija are loyal members of the family who add another layer of richness to the story. Selim is not as present as in previous books but still obsessed with motorcars. Daoud, the big galoop, has a major role to play here. He is more important than comic relief.
Cyrus and Katherine seem to be doing well. It is nice to see her looking healthy and feeling better now Bertie is well again and so helpful to his stepfather. Bertie doesn't have much to do here. He's a sweetheart but not as quick on the uptake as the Emersons. Jumana has turned into a lovely young woman, dedicated to her profession but some of her petty behaviors here show she is still young and a bit immature.
Cyrus and Emerson have some newcomers on staff. Mademoiselle Suzanne Malreaux is an Anglo-French artist who may not be what she seems. I guessed her story almost immediately. It surprises me that it took Amelia that long! Nadij is a new excavator. He comes highly recommended but is quiet and doesn't have much to say or do. Suzanne's grandfather, Sir William Portmanteau, a wealthy English industrialist, is not a very nice person. Making allowances for being a man of his time and place would be allowed at first because those prejudices were expected, but once he gets to know people and still makes rude comments, he becomes persona non grata. The reader will not like him at all.
Carnarvon and Carter do not come off very well here. I was a little surprised at how petty and childish they acted. Carter's ego swells to enormous proportions now he has made such an important discovery. By rights it should be Emerson's discovery but it's not. Carter doesn't have to rub it in and be so rude. He could use the help but knowing Emerson won't allow anyone to take any of the treasure, he refuses Emerson's help. The treasure belongs to Egypt for all to see. I can't wait to see pictures of the new Grand Egyptian Museum! Emerson would be so pleased!
Journalists get a bad reputation here too, flocking around like a pack of vultures. Kevin O'Connell returns for a story and gets on Amelia's nerves. I think he likes to push her buttons. He is a roguish sort but not a bad man, I think. He's trying to make a living and sensational journalism is the answer. I don't like it any more than Amelia but he seems to respect the Emersons.
I'm very very sad to be finished with this series after many years. The Emersons are immortal and while they may not have any new adventures in the pages of books, I like to think of them carrying on and every time I see a new discovery about Ancient Egypt, I think of the Emersons and know they had a hand in it! I wouldn't trust Charla with any tools just yet but David John is already on his way to becoming a scholar. What will the next generation discover? We can only imagine!
This is the last entry (chronologically) in the series and it suffers from a disjointed plot where nothing much happens. The archeology plot is certainly fascinating but it gets boring once Emerson loses his temper. That plot is mostly dropped in favor of confusing political intrigue. I wasn't really interested in the politics of the Middle East and Abdullah told Amelia to stay out of it, it doesn't concern her. I did really enjoy the moments between family members. The characters really live and breathe and it is delightful watching them interact.
I love the tender, private moments between Amelia and Emerson. He loves her so much! It's just so sweet but I do understand her frustrations. I find her constant attempts to pick a fight just to initiate more private interludes a little annoying after a time. Amelia is so smug and a bit overconfident at times but that's who she is and why we love her. Emerson's temper really gets the better of him this time. I think I would probably be frustrated as well but what can you do except offer to help? His outbursts of temper were a bit uncalled for.
There's not as much about Ramses and Nefret as in previous books. They're hardly ever alone. There are two big moments when their feelings for each other are allowed to show through. Otherwise the focus is on their children. Charla is a spoiled brat and in need of a good spanking. I find her insanely annoying and would never put up with that kind of behavior. David John is sweet but a little overly precocious. The animals fail to appeal to me as well.
David, Sennia and Gargery come out for Christmas. Sennia is as self-confident as ever but now she has the poise and manners of a young English woman. She still has her loving heart and can never truly be ruined by English schooling. Gargery is too funny and I love how he has his own little action subplot in his old age. David's story surprised me. I can't believe it!
Sethos is a complicated individual. I find him charming at times but also maddening because of his reticence. I trust his story and I trust he is reformed. He is not a very good husband to Margaret. I don't blame her for being angry but she is also partly at fault for their estrangement. I don't really like her much. She's even more smug and annoying than Amelia. Their plot finale is very sweet.
As always Selim, Daoud, Fatima and Kadija are loyal members of the family who add another layer of richness to the story. Selim is not as present as in previous books but still obsessed with motorcars. Daoud, the big galoop, has a major role to play here. He is more important than comic relief.
Cyrus and Katherine seem to be doing well. It is nice to see her looking healthy and feeling better now Bertie is well again and so helpful to his stepfather. Bertie doesn't have much to do here. He's a sweetheart but not as quick on the uptake as the Emersons. Jumana has turned into a lovely young woman, dedicated to her profession but some of her petty behaviors here show she is still young and a bit immature.
Cyrus and Emerson have some newcomers on staff. Mademoiselle Suzanne Malreaux is an Anglo-French artist who may not be what she seems. I guessed her story almost immediately. It surprises me that it took Amelia that long! Nadij is a new excavator. He comes highly recommended but is quiet and doesn't have much to say or do. Suzanne's grandfather, Sir William Portmanteau, a wealthy English industrialist, is not a very nice person. Making allowances for being a man of his time and place would be allowed at first because those prejudices were expected, but once he gets to know people and still makes rude comments, he becomes persona non grata. The reader will not like him at all.
Carnarvon and Carter do not come off very well here. I was a little surprised at how petty and childish they acted. Carter's ego swells to enormous proportions now he has made such an important discovery. By rights it should be Emerson's discovery but it's not. Carter doesn't have to rub it in and be so rude. He could use the help but knowing Emerson won't allow anyone to take any of the treasure, he refuses Emerson's help. The treasure belongs to Egypt for all to see. I can't wait to see pictures of the new Grand Egyptian Museum! Emerson would be so pleased!
Journalists get a bad reputation here too, flocking around like a pack of vultures. Kevin O'Connell returns for a story and gets on Amelia's nerves. I think he likes to push her buttons. He is a roguish sort but not a bad man, I think. He's trying to make a living and sensational journalism is the answer. I don't like it any more than Amelia but he seems to respect the Emersons.
I'm very very sad to be finished with this series after many years. The Emersons are immortal and while they may not have any new adventures in the pages of books, I like to think of them carrying on and every time I see a new discovery about Ancient Egypt, I think of the Emersons and know they had a hand in it! I wouldn't trust Charla with any tools just yet but David John is already on his way to becoming a scholar. What will the next generation discover? We can only imagine!
September 17, 2014
Wow, my journey with the Peabody-Emerson clan is finally at an end. And what a wonderful, fun, fulfilling journey it was. I am dearly going to miss the characters from the smug and self-confident Peabody to the cursing and bombastic Emerson, and from the beautiful and clever Nefret to the stoic and brilliant Ramses. I loved the final book because it wrapped up many of the loose plot threads while still maintaining the warm tone and swift pace of the rest of the series. But it is nonetheless a bittersweet ending because my time with these characters is at an end. Rereads will definitely be a necessity in the future, but nothing beats reading a series for the first time. I cannot recommend this book and this series enough for fans of romance, history, Egyptology, adventure, and mystery. It really had it all, and the writing world lost a brilliant voice with the passing of Elizabeth Peters.
May 7, 2024
Well I agree with previous reviewers that this book is essentially the last chapter in this wonderful series. In the latest year chronologically Peters wraps up a series of ongoing situations that signals the end. There are two more books one which deals with the story 10 years earlier and the last book is written by Peters and a trusted friend after she died. Truly a wonderfully written series. I hope it keeps getting read for many more years.
September 19, 2008
Amelia Peabody is my hero. I have read everything Elizabeth Peters has written. Several times. I LOVE the Emersons, and when I manage to remember that they are not real people, I always regret the fact.
BUT... I found this book dreary and depressing. The family seems to be drifting apart (the demise of the extended family) and everyone is very focused on their own individual "needs" so they can be fulfilled. I reread it twice, hoping I would like it better, but I just never did. The author manages to inject her political opinions, which is certainly her perogative and I have never had a problem with before, but this time, it's so anachronistic and distracting!
Also, I think she should kill off that tedious and obnoxious Margaret Minton and marry Sethos to Fatima. Margaret never developed a character - she is just a collection of rude behaviors and attitudes. The idea that Sethos could love her never feels very believable, and it never gets better.
Oh, and Jumana... another character who never appears anything other than irritating. She may be pretty and smart, but she is not lovable at all, which makes her seem a little unlikely as a companion for a guy like Bertie.
I wish I had not read this book. It left a taste of ashes in my mouth, after 20 years of reading and loving Amelia and her family.
BUT... I found this book dreary and depressing. The family seems to be drifting apart (the demise of the extended family) and everyone is very focused on their own individual "needs" so they can be fulfilled. I reread it twice, hoping I would like it better, but I just never did. The author manages to inject her political opinions, which is certainly her perogative and I have never had a problem with before, but this time, it's so anachronistic and distracting!
Also, I think she should kill off that tedious and obnoxious Margaret Minton and marry Sethos to Fatima. Margaret never developed a character - she is just a collection of rude behaviors and attitudes. The idea that Sethos could love her never feels very believable, and it never gets better.
Oh, and Jumana... another character who never appears anything other than irritating. She may be pretty and smart, but she is not lovable at all, which makes her seem a little unlikely as a companion for a guy like Bertie.
I wish I had not read this book. It left a taste of ashes in my mouth, after 20 years of reading and loving Amelia and her family.
September 8, 2019
September 2019: Bittersweet this time, to read the last piece in the Emerson timeline written by Peters having read their adventures in chronological-to-the-characters order this time. She really played with the history here, taking advantage of the Tutankhamen records and ambiguities of them. I’m on to the completed-by-Joan-Hess volume which I forgot I ought to have read just after _Falcon_.
June 2017: The Tutankhamen one, with an intricate plot and so many characters I think even Barbara Rosenblat was getting confused. But - lovely lovely lovely to see old friends in top form.
June 2017: The Tutankhamen one, with an intricate plot and so many characters I think even Barbara Rosenblat was getting confused. But - lovely lovely lovely to see old friends in top form.
January 24, 2015
This is the first Elizabeth Peters book I have ever read and I liked it. The characters all were well developed and Amelia Peabody was a force of nature. She holds the reigns over everyone but not obnoxiously; she does with a quiet, or maybe not so quiet but strong will.
I was a little disappointed that the mystery was not more about the tomb but that being said it was a really good, cozy, mystery. I don't usually read cozy type mysteries but I plan to look into more of this series.
I was a little disappointed that the mystery was not more about the tomb but that being said it was a really good, cozy, mystery. I don't usually read cozy type mysteries but I plan to look into more of this series.
November 1, 2020
Finished a re-read of this in audio. Although not the last written, it wraps up all of the main characters' stories very nicely.
November 1, 2020: Another great re-listen of this, for me, the final book in the series. Until next year when I start all over again.
November 1, 2020: Another great re-listen of this, for me, the final book in the series. Until next year when I start all over again.
August 3, 2020
This was definitely one of my favourites in the series - the Emersons join Howard Carter and Lord Carnavon in their discovery of Tutankhamon's tomb. I've never been fascinated by Egyptology but even that was amazing to me. Some absolutely lovely Christmas scenes too. Just lovely. I'm going to cry when this is over.
May 12, 2022
I went to re-read this after reading Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle about the real Carnarvon family. Lord Carnarvon was a British aristocrat and amateur Egyptologist who sponsored Howard Carter's excavations, leading to the discovery of King Tut's tomb.
Tomb of the Golden Bird is part of a series of mysteries whose main characters, the Emerson family, are English archeologists excavating in Egypt. The book combines their fictional story with the actual discovery of the tomb. Lord Carnarvon and his daughter Eve appear briefly and Howard Carter is present throughout.
Peters does a good job combining the fictional with the true history.
Tomb of the Golden Bird is part of a series of mysteries whose main characters, the Emerson family, are English archeologists excavating in Egypt. The book combines their fictional story with the actual discovery of the tomb. Lord Carnarvon and his daughter Eve appear briefly and Howard Carter is present throughout.
Peters does a good job combining the fictional with the true history.
June 25, 2009
It was over 20 years ago that I read the first book in the Amelia Peabody Mystery series. This is the 18th in the series, and I've read them all--and wished all of them were longer. What better recommendation can I give?
March 18, 2024
Wonderful book centering around the discovery of the tomb of King Tut. I saw this tomb when I visited Egypt in 2023, including the unwrapped mummy. The treasures that were removed were in the Cairo Museum, so I recognized many of the descriptions, none of which did them complete justice. Pictures were not allowed in the museum, even without flash, nor were pictures pf Seti I's treasures, but they were really amazing. The story line was mostly confusing, which it was intended to be,.but the history was wonderful as were the characters. I was beginning to lose my interest in Sethos, but he managed to reignite it. From being almost super=human to an aging man with man's weaknesses was quite a fall from grace, but in the end, I appreciated that he was portrayed as having at least one major weakness. I cannot like Margaret yet, but maybe she will improve with further books. At the moment and in the past, she has always struck me as a selfish woman, who will always put herself first with very little honor. As a contrast to Amelia, she becomes a foil that makes the reader realize just how wonderful Amelia is, in spite of thinking her occasionally selfish in past books.
March 26, 2019
I love this series and this was another fun installment. If you haven't read any of this series before, don't start here - go back to the beginning, as there are spoilers for earlier books in the later ones. They really should be read in order. If you've read the earlier books, you probably aren't reading this review, and if you are - why? You love the series, if you've gotten this far, all I can say is that this is a worthy addition.
The whiny, lovesick Ramses books are not my favorite, and thankfully, we don't have any of that here. Instead, we have 5-year old twins, who are even more precocious (and terrifying) than Ramses as a child, and I love them. Sennia, Gargery, and David make appearances, and we get our favorite reformed Master Criminal, as well. Howard Carter discovers King Tut's tomb, and Peters has a little fun rewriting history here.
All in all, another enjoyable audiobook reread. I'm getting closer to the end of my audio rereads, though, and that makes me a little sad. I guess I'll just have to start over at the beginning.
The whiny, lovesick Ramses books are not my favorite, and thankfully, we don't have any of that here. Instead, we have 5-year old twins, who are even more precocious (and terrifying) than Ramses as a child, and I love them. Sennia, Gargery, and David make appearances, and we get our favorite reformed Master Criminal, as well. Howard Carter discovers King Tut's tomb, and Peters has a little fun rewriting history here.
All in all, another enjoyable audiobook reread. I'm getting closer to the end of my audio rereads, though, and that makes me a little sad. I guess I'll just have to start over at the beginning.
July 30, 2018
I'm so sad to be at the end of this series. (I mean I have the three books set in seasons we didn't see ) but still - it was an amazing ending.
July 20, 2018
I didn't have this on the list of books I had read, but I am pretty sure that I read this a couple of years ago. It is a good installment in the series, but definitely not my favorite. I liked the earlier books best.
January 3, 2020
At last!! A brilliant discovery beneath workmen’s huts in the valley of the kings... an undiscovered royal tomb!!! The ending of this book is beautiful- it feels like a perfect ending to the whole series, frankly. But there appears to still be more...
March 28, 2019
I like this series a lot. This was a particularly interesting convoluted, in the best way, story.
October 17, 2019
Great story about the finding of King Tuts tomb.
June 25, 2021
I have so enjoyed reading all these Amelia Peabodys in order--the only one left is the one finished by Joan Hess after Elizabeth Peters's death. The Emersons and their friends and acquaintances now feel like good friends from whom I am reluctant to part. Of course--I can reread them all, I suppose. This particular one was as entertaining as any, mostly for the characters; the plot blended with the plots of many of the previous entries in the series.
September 18, 2023
Elizabeth Peters is unique in that her stories and characters still are entertaining in volume 18, when most series fizzle by volume 8.
May 5, 2025
Honestly, the plot (or lack thereof) is besides the point by now and the story is a fully satisfying chronological conclusion for the Emerson family.
September 16, 2018
This was a fun change of pace for me. I liked the history blended with the fictional British Egyptologist family. This would fall into my fluff read category, but it was a fluff read with a bit of depth at the same time, if that makes sense.
September 5, 2025
The discovery of King Tut’s tomb features largely in this one. A great insight into Carter and his handling of the tomb.
September 13, 2015
I'm in the process of re-reading the entire Amelia Peabody series again, from start to finish in one go. They are still some of my favorite books. They must be read with tongue firmly inserted in cheek. It also helps to have an interest in and some knowledge of Colonial-era exploration narratives, fiction like that of H. Rider Haggard, Orientalist studies, the competitive acquisitive zeal of western museums at the turn of the century, and the "gentlemen archaeologists" of the 19th century who brought more treasure-hunting fever than academic and historical interest to their digs. That is to say nothing of the insight into early seeds and outbreaks of unrest in the Middle East that find their way into the middle and later novels in the series. Add to this impressive list of "ingredients" a dash of early feminism, British upperclass manners, interesting plots, and especially the academically sound Egyptian history from a legitimate scholar (Elizabeth Peters had a PhD in Egyptology from the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago) and you have the very best in historical fiction, enclosed within adventurous and funny plots led by engaging and memorable characters who, though immensely more enlightened than many of their time, nonetheless remain realistic people OF their time, seeing the world through glasses tinted by their own culture and class. Though they attempt to rise above prejudice, they cannot quite entirely do so. Elizabeth Peters showed immense wisdom of the human condition in this aspect of her characterizations, reminding us all that we cannot even be aware of - much less remove - ALL of our preconceptions through which we see the world around us. Even the best of us - like Amelia - can continually peel back the layers of lenses through which we see the world.
All these philosophical, aesthetic, academic, and historical reasons for loving the series are thus topped off with depth of characterization, imaginative storytelling, fast-paced plotting, excellent word-crafting, and an overall affectionate humor about the human condition - the whole coming together even better than the sum of its parts to make it one of my favorite series of all time. I might add that it's a series that I've read and re-read multiple times, something that I almost never do.
To be fair, my one criticism about the series is that the non-chronological nature of the last few books gets a big confusing even to me, someone who's read them multiple times. They're still very enjoyable, but holding the timeline and chronology of events in my head is not always easy. I plan to tackle the compendium "Amelia Peabody's Egypt" soon to see how that clears things up. Nonetheless, I'm waiting with bated breath for the book Elizabeth Peters was finishing at the time of her death to be published. I think it would be a great tribute to her career to publish it posthumously.
I have been really surprised when friends I've recommended the series to haven't been as enthusiastic as I am about Amelia Peabody. I think I can attribute that to the fact that my first go-round of the series was on audiobook and Barbara Rosenblat and Grace Conlin did such a marvelous job of giving the series the proper amount of irony and tongue-in-cheek humor and updated H. Rider Haggard-style adventure, that even today when I read the series I hear it in their voices in my head. If you are having trouble connecting, then, I recommend listening to at least the first several books on audiobook. It wouldn't hurt to do some quick Wikipedia research on Colonialism, Egyptology, Howard Carter, Wallace Budge, Orientalism, H. Rider Haggard, museum-sponsored archaeology of the latre 19th & early 20th centuries (especially the competitiveness between the British Museum & the Metropolitan Museum of Art(, WWI, pre-WWII espionage, dismantling of the Ottoman Empire... anything relating to history of the 19th century to early 20th century. All will add to your enjoyment of the novels as well as your appreciation for how deftly Elizabeth Peters wove history and real people throughout her fiction.
All these philosophical, aesthetic, academic, and historical reasons for loving the series are thus topped off with depth of characterization, imaginative storytelling, fast-paced plotting, excellent word-crafting, and an overall affectionate humor about the human condition - the whole coming together even better than the sum of its parts to make it one of my favorite series of all time. I might add that it's a series that I've read and re-read multiple times, something that I almost never do.
To be fair, my one criticism about the series is that the non-chronological nature of the last few books gets a big confusing even to me, someone who's read them multiple times. They're still very enjoyable, but holding the timeline and chronology of events in my head is not always easy. I plan to tackle the compendium "Amelia Peabody's Egypt" soon to see how that clears things up. Nonetheless, I'm waiting with bated breath for the book Elizabeth Peters was finishing at the time of her death to be published. I think it would be a great tribute to her career to publish it posthumously.
I have been really surprised when friends I've recommended the series to haven't been as enthusiastic as I am about Amelia Peabody. I think I can attribute that to the fact that my first go-round of the series was on audiobook and Barbara Rosenblat and Grace Conlin did such a marvelous job of giving the series the proper amount of irony and tongue-in-cheek humor and updated H. Rider Haggard-style adventure, that even today when I read the series I hear it in their voices in my head. If you are having trouble connecting, then, I recommend listening to at least the first several books on audiobook. It wouldn't hurt to do some quick Wikipedia research on Colonialism, Egyptology, Howard Carter, Wallace Budge, Orientalism, H. Rider Haggard, museum-sponsored archaeology of the latre 19th & early 20th centuries (especially the competitiveness between the British Museum & the Metropolitan Museum of Art(, WWI, pre-WWII espionage, dismantling of the Ottoman Empire... anything relating to history of the 19th century to early 20th century. All will add to your enjoyment of the novels as well as your appreciation for how deftly Elizabeth Peters wove history and real people throughout her fiction.
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