Scan barcode
msvenner's review against another edition
5.0
Joan Hess proves herself as a master story teller picking up where Elizabeth Peters left off after her tragic demise. Not many writers could capture the humour, practically and recklessness of Amelia Peabody. Thank you Ms. Hess for keeping the Emerson clan alive for one more story!
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
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.
moonmist80's review
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.