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ewil6681's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
rlse's review against another edition
2.0
Definitely a few weird characterization errors by Hess here, but I’m grateful she has finished off the series.
alrey's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
lydaalexander's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I put off reading this book forever, because I know it's the last one. :( Kudos to Joan Hess for picking this up and helping deliver the last episode to us. I didn't find this one as enjoyable as some of the previous volumes, and I'm unsure whether it's because there was less Egyptology in this one, the tone was slightly different, or because I just really like the later volumes where Nefret and Ramses are together .
cleaper's review against another edition
3.0
I love Amelia Peabody and I can't imagine giving any book that she is in less than 3 stars. That said, the characters seemed like shadows of themselves. Every once in a while, Peter's version of Amelia would peek through and I would get warm fuzzies, but for a lot of the book, the characters seemed off.
biblioholic29's review against another edition
1.0
I've loved this series for years, so when I found out that the final book was finally being published, I was ecstatic. I knew it had been finished posthumously, but didn't know how much had been completed prior to Peters' death. The answer seems to be not much. The author does seem to make a valiant effort to emulate the style, but falls far short. None of the characters I've loved for 15 years acted like themselves. Furthermore, some egregious errors were made in describing several secondary characters (Daoud does NOT have many wives and children that's Selim. Kat has NOT known Ramses since he was born - that's Evelyn). I don't necessarily blame Joan Hess (who finished the book) for these problems, they are things that should have been caught by a good editor. In fact they were so bad I wondered if they had a different editor in addition to a different author. The plot and resolution were standard Amelia Peabody - it's all the little things that make reading and rereading these books feel like visiting family that were wrong. Unless you're an extreme completest, I'd recommend any fan of Amelia pretend this one hasn't happened and reread your favorite instead.
emsee33's review against another edition
3.0
THE PAINTED QUEEN by Elizabeth Peters and Joan Hess (begun by Peters and finished by Hess after the former passed away) can best be described as 'perfunctory.' It's a perfectly acceptable mystery, if bordering on the absurd, but it simply isn't an Amelia Peabody mystery. While the forward and introductions make it clear that completing this manuscript was a labor of love on the part of Hess to honor her late friend's memory and talent, the result isn't all that successful.
Elizabeth Peters (aka Barbara Mertz) was not the world's greatest writer, but I adored her and read everything she ever wrote under that pseudonym. Some of her books are better than others, and many of the later books in the Amelia Peabody series are uneven (and occasionally, poorly edited), but she had wit, a joy for the subject, and a clear voice that Hess failed to capture. How much of THE PAINTED QUEEN is Peters and how much is Hess is unknown, but every page read like it was just slightly off-center. The painting was more or less complete, but the details were absent.
The main cast of characters spoke in ways that felt forced or inaccurate, and the narrative lacked any sort of emotional reflection, particularly jarring as this book is supposed to take place between two of the most dramatic stories in the series - THE FALCON AT THE PORTAL and HE SHALL THUNDER IN THE SKY. While references are made to events in the former, the emotional fallout is barely touched, and not one mention is made of Sennia, the little Egyptian girl whose appearance in FALCON turned everyone's lives upside down. I found the Manuscript H sections particularly disappointing.
Ultimately, this novel is unnecessary. Though Peters started filling in gaps from earlier points in the series while she was still alive, the journey that her readers took all the way to TOMB OF THE GOLDEN BIRD had a perfectly satisfying ending for the Emersons, and as Amelia might say, there's simply no need to go backwards.
Elizabeth Peters (aka Barbara Mertz) was not the world's greatest writer, but I adored her and read everything she ever wrote under that pseudonym. Some of her books are better than others, and many of the later books in the Amelia Peabody series are uneven (and occasionally, poorly edited), but she had wit, a joy for the subject, and a clear voice that Hess failed to capture. How much of THE PAINTED QUEEN is Peters and how much is Hess is unknown, but every page read like it was just slightly off-center. The painting was more or less complete, but the details were absent.
The main cast of characters spoke in ways that felt forced or inaccurate, and the narrative lacked any sort of emotional reflection, particularly jarring as this book is supposed to take place between two of the most dramatic stories in the series - THE FALCON AT THE PORTAL and HE SHALL THUNDER IN THE SKY. While references are made to events in the former, the emotional fallout is barely touched, and not one mention is made of Sennia, the little Egyptian girl whose appearance in FALCON turned everyone's lives upside down. I found the Manuscript H sections particularly disappointing.
Ultimately, this novel is unnecessary. Though Peters started filling in gaps from earlier points in the series while she was still alive, the journey that her readers took all the way to TOMB OF THE GOLDEN BIRD had a perfectly satisfying ending for the Emersons, and as Amelia might say, there's simply no need to go backwards.
thain's review against another edition
4.0
Joan Hess - who writes humorous mysteries of her own - did a nice job capturing the late Elizabeth Peters' tone in this final volume of the classic series.
thenovelbook's review against another edition
5.0
I have been eagerly awaiting the final installment of the Amelia Peabody series ever since I heard that the late author Elizabeth Peters had one final book in the works. Thanks to the gracious folks who responded to my request at William Morrow/Harper Collins Publishers, I was able to get my hands on this advance reader's edition, and you may be sure that I devoured it!
For those who may be coming to this book with no prior knowledge of the series, even though this book is #20, it fits chronologically about two-thirds of the way into the series and fills in a gap between previously published books. The Painted Queen will certainly be most meaningful to you if you have read the books that precede it, but I think it would stand up even if you came to it without that context.
That being said, here are my thoughts:
This is a stellar addition to the Amelia series. On page one, I admitted to myself some reservations. Joan Hess is the co-author for this work; I wondered, how would the collaboration flow? Would I really recognize my favorite characters? Would I be able to suspend disbelief and go along on their adventures with the same thrill I've gotten in many of Elizabeth Peters' other works?
I realized by about page seven that the answer to all of those questions was YES! In fact, this book may actually mark the series' peak of comedy, derring-do, and suspense. It's very, very funny, and the action is tightly plotted without any slow bits.
I love the premise, which is absurd and therefore sits fair and square in Amelia's world. Without any apology whatsoever, she OWNS the fact that her life is straight out of the most sensational of novels. She and her family of archaeologists are just beginning their latest venture in Egypt when a villain with a monocle bursts into her bath chamber, gasps "Murder!" and collapses in a dead heap on the floor moments before he would have strangled her. Naturally, she hoists herself out of the tub and begins going through his pockets. When she and her husband Emerson begin speculating about the presence of the monocle, she immediately informs him that it must be the insignia of a secret society, and that assassins sometimes travel in gangs.
"Assassins do not travel in gangs," says Emerson.
(They are the perfect duo!)
This is the point at which I began to dissolve into fits of chuckling.
And that is just the beginning of an adventure that involves a whole parade of monocled men named after the great traitors of history. Also, you know the iconic treasure sitting in a museum in Berlin, the Nefertiti bust? The Emerson family is seamlessly inserted into that historical narrative. (I love the way Elizabeth Peters has always had them at or near the scene of great discoveries, but always in such a way that real history is left intact...they get their hands all over the story, but in the end they leave no trace!)
So, yes, the Nefertiti bust has been discovered, but then it vanishes, but then it reappears again...and again...and again...how many of them can there be? Amelia's son Ramses and his best friend David traverse Cairo hunting down each new copy.
This keeps Ramses mostly away from Nefret, the Emerson family's ward, now a grown woman with a tragedy in her past. Readers of The Falcon at the Portal and He Shall Thunder in the Sky know that since this new book is filling in that chronological gap, the relationship tension must be kept intact. It simmers ever so slightly below the surface.
I must mention one other big thing that I adored in this book....the appearances of the Emerson family's perpetual nemesis (actually, at this point, "frenemy" is probably a more accurate description). Yes, it's Sethos, or as Amelia likes to call him, the Master Criminal. His disguises and plots are ongoing joys of the series. When he shows up in The Painted Queen, it's with greater panache than ever before. There are thundering hooves. There are dramatic interventions. It's glorious. Those who know the rest of his story will revel in these moments.
So, in review, this book is everything I wanted the last Amelia Peabody novel to be. I'm sad that there won't be any more of her adventures, but I'm happy that The Painted Queen is such a fitting swan song. I am totally elated to have read it, and you will be too. It goes on sale July 25!
***SO MANY THANKS to William Morrow/Harper Collins Publishers who provided me with this free advance copy in exchange for an honest review
For those who may be coming to this book with no prior knowledge of the series, even though this book is #20, it fits chronologically about two-thirds of the way into the series and fills in a gap between previously published books. The Painted Queen will certainly be most meaningful to you if you have read the books that precede it, but I think it would stand up even if you came to it without that context.
That being said, here are my thoughts:
This is a stellar addition to the Amelia series. On page one, I admitted to myself some reservations. Joan Hess is the co-author for this work; I wondered, how would the collaboration flow? Would I really recognize my favorite characters? Would I be able to suspend disbelief and go along on their adventures with the same thrill I've gotten in many of Elizabeth Peters' other works?
I realized by about page seven that the answer to all of those questions was YES! In fact, this book may actually mark the series' peak of comedy, derring-do, and suspense. It's very, very funny, and the action is tightly plotted without any slow bits.
I love the premise, which is absurd and therefore sits fair and square in Amelia's world. Without any apology whatsoever, she OWNS the fact that her life is straight out of the most sensational of novels. She and her family of archaeologists are just beginning their latest venture in Egypt when a villain with a monocle bursts into her bath chamber, gasps "Murder!" and collapses in a dead heap on the floor moments before he would have strangled her. Naturally, she hoists herself out of the tub and begins going through his pockets. When she and her husband Emerson begin speculating about the presence of the monocle, she immediately informs him that it must be the insignia of a secret society, and that assassins sometimes travel in gangs.
"Assassins do not travel in gangs," says Emerson.
(They are the perfect duo!)
This is the point at which I began to dissolve into fits of chuckling.
And that is just the beginning of an adventure that involves a whole parade of monocled men named after the great traitors of history. Also, you know the iconic treasure sitting in a museum in Berlin, the Nefertiti bust? The Emerson family is seamlessly inserted into that historical narrative. (I love the way Elizabeth Peters has always had them at or near the scene of great discoveries, but always in such a way that real history is left intact...they get their hands all over the story, but in the end they leave no trace!)
So, yes, the Nefertiti bust has been discovered, but then it vanishes, but then it reappears again...and again...and again...how many of them can there be? Amelia's son Ramses and his best friend David traverse Cairo hunting down each new copy.
This keeps Ramses mostly away from Nefret, the Emerson family's ward, now a grown woman with a tragedy in her past. Readers of The Falcon at the Portal and He Shall Thunder in the Sky know that since this new book is filling in that chronological gap, the relationship tension must be kept intact. It simmers ever so slightly below the surface.
I must mention one other big thing that I adored in this book....the appearances of the Emerson family's perpetual nemesis (actually, at this point, "frenemy" is probably a more accurate description). Yes, it's Sethos, or as Amelia likes to call him, the Master Criminal. His disguises and plots are ongoing joys of the series. When he shows up in The Painted Queen, it's with greater panache than ever before. There are thundering hooves. There are dramatic interventions. It's glorious. Those who know the rest of his story will revel in these moments.
So, in review, this book is everything I wanted the last Amelia Peabody novel to be. I'm sad that there won't be any more of her adventures, but I'm happy that The Painted Queen is such a fitting swan song. I am totally elated to have read it, and you will be too. It goes on sale July 25!
***SO MANY THANKS to William Morrow/Harper Collins Publishers who provided me with this free advance copy in exchange for an honest review
moonmist80's review against another edition
4.0
Loved the story and that we were able to have one last Amelia adventure. The tone of this book was slightly different to me from the previous books. This is of course understandable due to being completed by another author.