The Painted Queen: an Amelia Peabody Mystery by Elizabeth Peters and Joan Hess
| The Painted Queen: an Amelia Peabody Mystery by Elizabeth Peters and Joan Hess | |
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| Category: Crime (Historical) | |
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Reviewer: Linda Lawlor
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| Summary: A pleasant final contribution to the canon of Amelia Peabody's adventures in early twentieth century Egypt, where Master Criminals, determined assassins and archaeological discoveries abound. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 352 | Date: July 2017 |
| Publisher: Constable | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 9781472126825 | |
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Amelia Peabody is a no-nonsense lady who endures all manner of murder attempts, kidnappings and sundry other crimes while on archaeological digs in Egypt with equanimity and composure. She is either revered or feared (or both) by villains, museum curators, family and workmen alike for her caustic tongue and the steel-reinforced parasol she brandishes at the first sign of danger. And yet, once the evil-doers have been locked up, precious objects returned to their owners and all injuries bandaged, she still insists on all the decorum of the English abroad: formal dress for dinner and only the politest and least contentious topics for dinner-table conversation.
Once again Amelia is working with her beloved and irascible husband Emerson (known to the locals as the Father of Curses) on a dig near Cairo. It is 1912, and the long-lost bust of the legendary Queen Nefertiti is about to be unearthed, but that is not the most exciting event of the season: Amelia has barely had time to step off the train and into a relaxing hot bath at the famous Shepheard's Hotel when she encounters her first dead body. Having her life in almost constant danger doesn't stop our stalwart heroine from preventing the theft of the beautiful painted bust, sorting out a few attempts by Foreign Powers to create mayhem, and ably assist her spouse at their excavation site at Amarna.
Elizabeth Peters is one of the pen names of Barbara Mertz, a prize-winning writer of fiction and non-fiction who died in 2013. An Egyptologist herself, she insisted on complete accuracy in her accounts of the excavations around Cairo at the turn of the century, and while Amelia's adventures are wildly extravagant at times, details of the day-to-day work she shares with her husband are not. This story, left unfinished at her death, fits chronologically mid-way through the series, well before the war which put paid to so much archaeological investigation. Her friend Joan Hess, who tells us in the preface how she and Barbara would discuss the plot at length, has undertaken to finish the story, but it can't have been easy: fervent fans will welcome any further adventures for Amelia, but will, at the same time, insist jealously and fiercely on how they think the characters should behave. There are admittedly a few weak spots, where the plot gets complicated and well-known phrases and descriptions recur, but on the whole this is a joyously entertaining romp which manages to give the reader the clear impression of having been right there in the heat and the dust of the desert, besieged on all sides by diabolical scoundrels and head-strong camels. Fans of Amelia will definitely enjoy it, while new readers would do better to start with earlier books in the series to understand the complicated family dynamics and the role in Amelia's life of the shadowy criminal Sethos.
Fortunately there are plenty of feisty female crime-fighters in historical fiction. For one of the best look at Ancient Roman Albia, who takes up the mantle from her father, Marcus Didius Falco, when he manages to get on the wrong side of Emperor Domitian. Bookbag particularly enjoyed the accounts of her adventures in The Graveyard of the Hesperides by Lindsey Davis and its sequel, The Third Nero. Then again, if you fancy a story set round about the same time as Amelia's adventures, have a look at An Unlikely Agent by Jane Menczer, about the secret battle against anarchists in Edwardian London. And although some of us may bridle at the thought of the 1950s being considered historical, the post-war exploits of Mirabelle Bevan and her assistant Vesta do seem to come from another world. Try Brighton Belle: a Mirabelle Bevan Mystery by Sara Sheridan, London Calling and British Bulldog if only to remind yourself just how far we've actually come in gender and race equality!
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Painted Queen: an Amelia Peabody Mystery by Elizabeth Peters and Joan Hess at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy The Painted Queen: an Amelia Peabody Mystery by Elizabeth Peters and Joan Hess at Amazon.com.
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