This is the continuing account of the adventures of Amilia Peabody-Emerson, an eccentric Victorian lady archaeolgist and her husband. Returning to Egypt, accompanied by their clumsy but well-meaning servant John and their precocious child Ramses, they are involved in excavating a run-down pyramid and less-than impressive cemetaries. The death of an unsavoury antique dealer prompts Amelia to investigate his - and further deaths - linked to a mysterious master criminal. Both archaeologists must also contend with hostile Coptic priests, Protestant missionaries and mummy cases that keep appearing and disappearing!
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The actual mystery is simple and yet hard to solve since Peters throws in every cliche for suspects including a lecherous foreign noble, a theatrical and rich lady, a too-good to be true missionary and the obligatory damsel in distress. It is the use of these "stock characters" which lets the series down. This is murder-mystery lite.
The review of this Book prepared by Alan J. Bishop
In her third adventure, Amelia (Peabody) Emerson and her husband Radcliffe take their unbelievably precocious and talkative son "Ramses," now 5 or 6, to a rather unpromising dig at Mazghunah. It is the early 1890s. An unscrupulous dealer in illegal antiquities appears to have hung himself in Cairo, but Amelia thinks it's murder. At the dig, there is tension in the nearby village between the Muslims and Coptic arabs. Mummy cases start appearing and disappearing in the archaeologists' camp. A Master Criminal appears to be at the bottom of all. There are plenty of comic characters in this book, and a cliff-hanging (or should I say "pit-dwelling") climax in the bowels of a pyramid.
The review of this Book prepared by David Loftus
