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A review by beeisbooked
The Painted Queen by Elizabeth Peters, Joan Hess
3.0
For the final installment of the Amelia Peabody series we get Amelia and her family trying to find the missing Nefertiti bust and investigate Germany's Deustche Orient-Gesellschaft involvment, dodge Geoffrey Godwin's vengeful, monocle-wearing family, and solve a murder at Amarna. First I want to thank Joan Hess for working on and completing this book in Elizabeth Peters stead. It's not an easy task to write in another authors style with their different time period and characters. I know that she worked off of some version of a completed manuscript, but it's still an undertaking.
Now about the actual book, which unfortunately, due to more technical issues than the actual story, falls a bit flat. As other reviewers have mentioned, all the characters at one point or another had strange or stilted dialogue. I know that Amelia and her family bicker, have their jokes etc, but they all truly care about one another, but it doesn't seem as believable in this book. Amelia especially seemed out of character. She would be roaming about one minute, and then damsel in distress the next. She has gotten into many fixes, and faced many adversaries and criminals, but usually persevered through her quick thinking and bravery, being compassionate but strong when difficult things happen. Rameses and David bickered and act more like frenemies than actual brothers. Emerson and Nefret barely show up, and are really just there to fill in the ultimate piece of the mystery rather than engaging in it. Finally the writing itself can be choppy, with many sudden jumps in time or places. I was surprised when one moment they would be having breakfast, and then by the next paragraph it would be the next day after a full day at the dig site. In fact many days at the dig would be mentioned, but never in detail, which I understand because Hess didn't have the same experience Mertz did in archaeology.
Overall, I'm glad that I completed the series, and that one of the "missing journal" years was filled in.
Now about the actual book, which unfortunately, due to more technical issues than the actual story, falls a bit flat. As other reviewers have mentioned, all the characters at one point or another had strange or stilted dialogue. I know that Amelia and her family bicker, have their jokes etc, but they all truly care about one another, but it doesn't seem as believable in this book. Amelia especially seemed out of character. She would be roaming about one minute, and then damsel in distress the next. She has gotten into many fixes, and faced many adversaries and criminals, but usually persevered through her quick thinking and bravery, being compassionate but strong when difficult things happen. Rameses and David bickered and act more like frenemies than actual brothers. Emerson and Nefret barely show up, and are really just there to fill in the ultimate piece of the mystery rather than engaging in it. Finally the writing itself can be choppy, with many sudden jumps in time or places. I was surprised when one moment they would be having breakfast, and then by the next paragraph it would be the next day after a full day at the dig site. In fact many days at the dig would be mentioned, but never in detail, which I understand because Hess didn't have the same experience Mertz did in archaeology.
Overall, I'm glad that I completed the series, and that one of the "missing journal" years was filled in.