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The Serpent on the Crown (Amelia Peabody Mysteries)
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Product Description
A priceless relic has been delivered to the Emerson home overlooking the Nile. But more than history surrounds this golden likeness of a forgotten king, for it is said early death will befall anyone who possesses it.
The woman who implores the renowned family of archaeologists and adventurers to accept the cursed statue insists the ill-gotten treasure has already killed her husband. Further, she warns, unless it is returned to the tomb from which it was stolen, more will surely die. With the world finally at peace—and with Egypt's ancient mysteries opened to them once more—Amelia Peabody and her loved ones are plunged into a storm of secrets, treachery, and murder by a widow's strange story and even stranger request. Each step toward the truth reveals a new peril, suggesting this curse is no mere superstition. And the next victim of the small golden king could be any member of the close-knit clan—perhaps even Amelia herself.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #787498 in Books
- Published on: 2005-04-01
- Format: Bargain Price
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 368 pages
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. MWA Grand Master Peters delivers another winner that you can't put down and yet don't want to see end, the 17th entry in her bestselling series to feature Egyptologist Amelia Peabody Emerson and her extended family (after 2004's Guardian of the Horizon). Early in 1922, novelist Magda Petherick, the widow of noted collector Pringle Petherick, interrupts the tea that the Emerson clan are enjoying on the veranda of their house by the Nile. Mrs. Petherick wants Emerson, Amelia's eminent archeologist husband, to dispose of a beautiful golden statuette that Pringle acquired shortly before his death because she believes it carries a curse. All are intrigued. News travels fast, and such a magnificent artifact soon attracts all manner of collectors, museum authorities, journalists and evildoers. Emerson's illegitimate half-brother, Sethos, formerly a dealer in illegal antiquities, arrives in disguise, but unfortunately he's followed by the gentleman he's impersonating. Tomb excavations, mountain treks, brutal attacks, an abduction, an exorcism and murder keep the plot hopping. The author's droll sense of humor and picture of a leisurely and less complicated age add to the appeal. Agent, Dominick Abel. (On sale Mar. 29)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
The year is 1922, and Amelia Peabody, Emerson, Ramses, and their familiar company have returned to Egypt for another season of excavation. Before they have a chance to begin, however, they receive an unexpected visitor, flamboyant writer Magda Petherick, who spins an outrageous story about a cursed artifact and implores Emerson to exorcise its demon. Of course, no one falls for Petherick's elaborate yarn, but the beautiful statuette piques Egyptologist Emerson's interest enough to convince him an investigation of its history is in order. In the meantime, Petherick turns up dead, someone attempts to "liberate" the artifact, and two attempts are made on Ramses' life. It's a delicious setup for Peabody to exercise her special talents. The espionage complications of previous books evaporated with the end of World War I, leaving this a more routine adventure. But, as usual, Peters injects plenty of humorous banter, lots of bluster from Emerson, and enough coy swipes at Victorian propriety to keep the story lively. There's even a little surprise at the close. A pleasant addition to the long-running series. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
About the Author
Elizabeth Peters was born and brought up in Illinois and earned her Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago's famed Oriental Institute. Peters was named Grand Master at the inaugural Anthony Awards in 1986 and by the Mystery Writers of America at the Edgar Awards in 1998, and given the Lifetime Achievement Award at Malice Domestic in 2003. She lives in a historic farmhouse in western Maryland.
Customer Reviews
Once Upon A Time In The Valley Of Kings
I confess there is a real comfort in finding a new book by a favorite author. Familiarity in these cases doesn't breed contempt, but surprise that a writer can continue a series of some sixteen volumes and still stir the interest of the reader. In fact, on reflection, some of Elizabeth Peters earlier efforts were the ones where one's patience was most tried. Gradually, as Amelia Peabody's clan took shape and developed both individual characters and a keen awareness of their own foibles the stories have developed a polish which has never faded in the intervening years.
The Serpent On The Crown brings us once again to Egypt and the Valley of the Kings, where the Emersons prepare for the 1922 season of excavation and research. As sudden visit in the night leaves Amelia, her husband Radcliffe, and their children Ramses and Nefret in the possession of a mysterious gold statuette of incalculable worth, Emerson having sworn to the woman who left it with them to end the curse by returning it to its rightful tomb.
Easier said than done in the Valley of the Kings where tombs are more common than camels. While the statuette is unmistakably from the era of Tutankhamon few such burials are known. Undaunted, Emerson sets about three excavations at once, starts investigation in Cairo and even far off London, and even goes so far as to bring in his brother Sethos, the master thief. With great scurrying on all fronts we know that, once again, the Emersons have found trouble, and sooner or later there will be a body.
As usual in a Peters mystery, comedy and the serious job is investigation mix perfectly. Chicanery abounds, there are villains under every rock, and secrets in even the most barren of tombs. This is a cozy, but a cozy in the best sense, with enough action and plot to carry the reader's interest straight through to the end. For those that are just starting out this book stands well on its own. Peters is quite good about slipping the reader just enough information to keep one from feeling lost. But by all means start from the beginning if you can and get to know one of the strangest families in detective fiction.
an enthralling read
This latest Amelia Peabody installment may not be the most perplexing mystery novel in the series, but it certainly was a very well written, entertaining and engaging one. From the very first page, I was hooked, and enjoyed myself thoroughly as I followed the latest adventure that the Emerson family and their friends find themselves entangled in.
It's 1922, and with the long ban on archeological activities finally lifted, the Emerson family (noted archeologist Professor Emerson, his wife Amelia Peabody, their son, Ramses and Ramses' wife, Nefret, along with their precocious 4 year old twins) are back in Egypt, hoping to carry on their work of delving into the long hidden mysteries of the past. But their enterprise is soon interrupted when Mrs. Pringle Petherick, comes to them for help. Mrs. Petherick (otherwise known as Magda von Ormond, authoress of several sensational vampire novels), the widow of Pringle Petherick, a well known collector of ancient Egyptian artifacts, believes that one of her husband's acquisitions, is cursed, that her husband died of the curse, and that the curse has been transferred onto her. What Mrs. Pringle wants is to leave the artifact with Emerson to perform an exorcism, lifting the curse, and for Emerson to return the artifact to the tomb from which it was stolen. While neither Emerson nor his canny wife, Amelia, believe that the Petherick widow really believes in the curse, they are intrigued by the artifact itself: a golden figure of a crowned king, probably from time of the heretical king, Akhenaton. But which tomb did the unscrupulous thieves discover the artifact in, and where is it? As Emerson, Amelia and the rest hunker down to find the artifact's true place of origin, things become further perplexing when the widow's stepchildren demand the return of the artifact, and the widow goes missing. Is the widow a victim of the "curse?" Or is she playing some deeper game? Fortunately, Amelia and Emerson have a host of friends and relatives (most notedly, Emerson's rogue half-brother, Sethos) to help sift fact from fiction...
Never mind that compared to earlier works the mystery subplot is not very compelling, and that the suspicious characters are easy to pinpoint from the very beginning, "The Serpent of the Crown" was still a very suspenseful and intriguing read, and was just pure fun to read. I enjoyed catching up with the Emerson-Peabody clan and all their friends (will Bertie ever win Jumana's affections? I'm hoping that he finally does!); and this subplot to do with Akhenaton and Tutankhamon was a nice touch -- though I'd have liked it if there had been a little more on this. All in all though, "The Serpent on the Crown" was a very enjoyable, engrossing and engaging read, full of excitement and humour, and a real treat of a read. An enthralling read!
Now We Know
At last we know why Emerson did not discover Tutankhamon's tomb. In the recent books in the series, Howard Carter has been an apt pupil of the Emerson technique. Emerson's explosive temper has kept him out of the Valley of Kings, but this book finds them both excavating there. Details of the excavations and the setting in 1922 are exciting, but the saga of the Emerson family continues this fascinating story line. Amelia is still the hero with her characteristic feminism just as Emerson is the outstanding Egyptologist of this or any other age. Amelia's dream time with the dead reis Abdullah and the power of the stone in the serpent crown are well done. But it is Amelia's second outburst from her usual conservative and seemingly-staid mother-love that provide the exciting climax and the reason why. This is not the compelling love story of He Shall Thunder in the Sky and Lord of the Silent, but it has another kind of love that is quiet and equally powerful. If you find Amelia Peabody Emerson's adventures in Egyptian archeology fascinating, you will greatly enjoy this book.
