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smcleish's review against another edition
4.0
Originally published on my blog here in May 1998.
This is the fifth in Peters' series of mysteries featuring a nineteenth century Egyptologist and early feminist Amelia Peabody. The series maintains a lighthearted, humourous tone and is always fun to read. This novel, unusually, takes place in London rather than Egypt. As usual, Emerson and Peabody allow themselves to be dragged into a murder investigation kicking and screaming but really enjoying every minute of it. In this case, the murders are in the British Museum, centred around a particular mummy in the Egyptian collection. A nice little touch, if deliberate, is that the murder is investigated by Inspector Cuff, presumably a promoted Sergeant Cuff from Wilkie Collins' [b:The Moonstone|6138|The Moonstone|Wilkie Collins|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320451884s/6138.jpg|1044477].
The series doesn't rely heavily on knowledge of the earlier books, but it obviously helps to have read at least the first of them. One good thing about Elizabeth Peters is that enjoying any one of her books is a fairly good guide to whether you will enjoy the rest; they are also sufficiently easy-going to be fun to read no matter how tired or ill you might be.
This is the fifth in Peters' series of mysteries featuring a nineteenth century Egyptologist and early feminist Amelia Peabody. The series maintains a lighthearted, humourous tone and is always fun to read. This novel, unusually, takes place in London rather than Egypt. As usual, Emerson and Peabody allow themselves to be dragged into a murder investigation kicking and screaming but really enjoying every minute of it. In this case, the murders are in the British Museum, centred around a particular mummy in the Egyptian collection. A nice little touch, if deliberate, is that the murder is investigated by Inspector Cuff, presumably a promoted Sergeant Cuff from Wilkie Collins' [b:The Moonstone|6138|The Moonstone|Wilkie Collins|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320451884s/6138.jpg|1044477].
The series doesn't rely heavily on knowledge of the earlier books, but it obviously helps to have read at least the first of them. One good thing about Elizabeth Peters is that enjoying any one of her books is a fairly good guide to whether you will enjoy the rest; they are also sufficiently easy-going to be fun to read no matter how tired or ill you might be.
iceangel9's review against another edition
4.0
The fifth installment in the Amelia Peabody Mystery series. Amelia and Emerson are back in London. Amelia's brother has left them with her nephew and niece for a spell. As Emerson tries to finish his paper, Amelia begins to investigate a murder at the British Museum. Is the death of the nigthwatchman an ancient curse or something more modern? While Ramses runs wild, as only Ramses can, Amelia discovers a woman from Emerson's past. London can be as treacherous as Egypt after all. Another fantastic tale of murder and mayhem as only an Amelia Peabody mystery can provide.
steveshooman's review against another edition
2.0
Originally gave it three stars, downgraded to two because I find I just don’t enjoy reading it any time I pick it up. Donated it.
audreylee's review against another edition
3.0
A fun historical fiction/mystery novel about two Egyptologists who can't stay out of trouble and their precocious son. My only problem with this book is that they seemed rather silly regarding Ramses' troubles.
raehink's review against another edition
4.0
The Peabodys are between digs, in London. A death in the British Museum takes place and the whole family engages in a fun romp to solve the mystery.
sprinklesugarbunbun's review against another edition
3.0
[a better review to come... in the future...]
It saddened me that after The Lion in the Valley, which I loved greatly, the following book was lackluster. I think, for me personally, it was three things: the setting not being Egypt for once, the whole Ayesha subplot...., and the mystery being rather lame compared to the previous quartet. Here's to hoping the sixth book is just as good as the last four, as we're back out of England!
Though I liked it less than the previous four, I am always happy to dive back into the lives of my favorite family trio--Emerson, Peabody, and Ramses (Emerson being my favorite).
It saddened me that after The Lion in the Valley, which I loved greatly, the following book was lackluster. I think, for me personally, it was three things: the setting not being Egypt for once, the whole Ayesha subplot...., and the mystery being rather lame compared to the previous quartet. Here's to hoping the sixth book is just as good as the last four, as we're back out of England!
Though I liked it less than the previous four, I am always happy to dive back into the lives of my favorite family trio--Emerson, Peabody, and Ramses (Emerson being my favorite).
greerd's review against another edition
4.0
Based on how many sentences I highlighted to add as quotes, this is my favourite Peabody mystery yet.
Yes, the mysteries are repetitive, but it's saved (for me) by Amelia's narrative voice and my love for this family (and their love for each other). Ramses gets better every book; I just wish Amelia would start listening to him, because he has a better grasp of what's going on than 90% of the adults around him. I suspect the day he starts being treated as a equal isn't far away, though.
Yes, the mysteries are repetitive, but it's saved (for me) by Amelia's narrative voice and my love for this family (and their love for each other). Ramses gets better every book; I just wish Amelia would start listening to him, because he has a better grasp of what's going on than 90% of the adults around him. I suspect the day he starts being treated as a equal isn't far away, though.
lucyb's review against another edition
2.0
I do enjoy the Amelia Peabody series, and this installment was delightfully tongue-in-cheek in Amelia's recounting of her own adventures. Also, I got a good chuckle out of the saga surrounding Emerson's (non-)writing of his book for an impatient academic publisher, a drama perhaps painfully familiar to those who have ever done scholarly writing. All that said, this gets a low rating from me for two reasons. The first was unnecessary and contrived tension arising from non-communication between Amelia and Emerson, a lack of communication that seems uncharacteristic. Second -- and more important in my view -- was the gratuitous killing off via self-sacrifice of a non-white woman, otherwise an interesting character. I appreciate that the series is, among other things, spoofing late Victorian/early Edwardian fiction, but it usually sends up the racial and gender prejudices of the time, rather than replicating them.
alyssasshelves's review against another edition
DNF at 15%. I loved the first few books in this series but I can’t do with the constant negativity around fat characters. Ways to describe a character: describe them and move ON. If you keep going back every time this character enters and you mention their fatness every SINGLE time in a negative tone, then that’s body shaming plain and simple. I get having fat bad/evil characters. But why is it so frequent? Why does every time that character gets mentioned, their weight is also mentioned? I’m TIRED of it.
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