A review by bookwormmichelle
The Painted Queen by Elizabeth Peters, Joan Hess

4.0

Oh, this is killing me. It's bad enough that Elizabeth Peters is dead. This alone is traumatic. I'm heartbroken that this is the last Amelia Peabody book. Although I have to admit I am so thankful that the estate does not plan on pulling a Tom Clancy here. Whew. Thank you. :-) I wanted to love this desperately, for this to take me back to how much I love these books. And . . . as a mystery book it really wasn't that bad. It's not that I didn't enjoy it. I did. It's just . . . I'm sorry. I don't know much about the author that finished this book, but . . . she certainly was not Elizabeth Peters. The farther I got into the book, the more the dialogue grew stilted and awkward. All the women sounded like Amelia on steroids, and all the men sounded like the Professor on steroids (terrifying thought.) I mean, I'm sorry. Nefret does not talk just like Amelia, and Ramses does not talk just like his father. It just didn't work. I'm glad the book got finished, and I'm glad I read it, and now I'm going to go in a corner and cry for the ending of my most favoritest mystery series ever.