Elizabeth Peters: Amelia Peabody Omnibus (books 1-2)

It’s been years since I read the last Amelia Peabody novel so I felt it was time to re-visit the series.

It all starts with Amelia inheriting a lot of money after her father dies sometime in the late 19^th century and deciding to travel the world (starting with Egypt) after spending her life in intellectual pursuits as the companion of her father. She is sure of herself and has no fear of what the world might say as she is a spinster (she’s younger than me btw as the series starts, 32) and considers herself without any marital prospects (not that she would want any).

Crocodile on the Sandbank

This is the first book where we embark on Egyptian and archaeological adventures with Amelia. I would love to be able to describe her manners and style of talking (writing, as these books are published as Amelia’s diaries after her death). She is a true feminist but not that she would ever call herself that, she believes in equality and reason so she generally follows that path even when society frowns upon it. And she doesn’t care in the least. :)

Through some mishaps, she and her  companion Evelyn meet the brothers Emerson and by the end of the book, we have 2 happy couples, albeit as different from one another as can be. Emerson, as Amelia calls him is the older brother (his name is Radcliffe actually), the archaeologist, and the younger brother Walter is there to help him with excavations and translations as he is a linguist.

Anyway, in this book we follow the friendship and love growing between the four, but the communication between Emerson and Peabody (as he calls her) is what makes these books so funny to read. Everything is told from Peabody’s point of view, as we are reading her “diaries” after all.

The Curse of the Pharaohs

I must say, of the four books, I’ve read in this go, this is the one I have the least to say about. :) Peabody and Emerson, having had a child are after the initial excavation season when they left him with his aunt and uncle now spending time in England not being able to leave their child for so long, (whose real name is not that important as from now on he will be called Ramses), this time they have to leave him with his aunt and uncle to go help with excavations after a plea to Emerson from a long-time ago friend whose husband has died in a strange accident that is of course attributed to a curse from a pharaoh where they are excavating.

Of course, Peabody and Emerson get themselves entangled in a mystery, how ever much Emerson tries to avoid them and Peabody wants to solve them. :) And they return home with the cat Bastet who is to become Ramses’ best companion.