Amelia and Emerson are back in Egypt, and this time their son Ramses along with their servant John accompany them.. However the season has not started well for them. The new Director of Antiquities has gleefully assigned them a site that is less than glamorous (no pyramids!) for our experienced archaeologists, and they are not happy! To make matters worse, Amelia is convinced that one of their old acquaintances has been murdered, and she is convinced that there is a Master Criminal behind the murder. Soon there are disappearing and appearing mummy cases, besotted servants, and numerous other events all keeping both Amelia and Emerson on their toes, both in the investigation and archaeologically!
The third installment in the Amelia Peabody series, The Mummy Case sees the real introduction of Ramses as a character in his own right. Whilst he appeared briefly in the last book, he is a major character here. He is a very precocious little boy of about 6 years of age...always getting dirty, finding his way into and out of trouble and able to talk himself out of any situation. At first I wondered if this was going to get in the way of me enjoying the story, but in the end I got used to it. To be honest, if Ramses was not like this, then he would have no place in the story between the two forceful personalities of his parents!
I have to admit to getting slightly lost in the some parts of the resolution of the mystery but overall this was another satisfying read from Elizabeth Peters. Her books are not only unique, but they are highly entertaining as well!
You can read my previous entry about the second Amelia Peabody mystery here.
Rating 4/5
Hi Marg,
ReplyDeleteI found your blog through Sara Donati's storytelling site and have really enjoyed reading your book reviews. I am a big fan of Elizabeth Peters and have read pretty much all of the series. I have to agree, though, that the plots can sometimes can be confusing and at times I lose the thread completely. It is her great characters that keep me reading!
Hi Beth!! I'm glad I am not the only one to lose the plot (:-D) sometimes! Her characters are great though so I am happy to keep reading!
ReplyDeleteMarg
BTW...are you the Beth who was in the Sara Donati Yahoo group?
ReplyDeleteYes, a long time ago I was part of the group. I'd forgotten about that! :) There may have been another one, too, though...I read a lot more than I posted.
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