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Loading... Crocodile on the Sandbankby Elizabeth Peters
I'm not sure why this book didn't grab me. I enjoyed Amelia Peabody's voice, and the setting was interesting, but the story overall didn't engage me. Was it the other characters? or was I just not in the mood for a mystery? Whatever it was, I'd rather have read a story that was Amelia Peabody writing one of the travelogues that she kept saying she doesn't want her narration to turn into. (  ) castiron | May 10, 2013 |  Amelia Peabody decides to roam Egypt looking at the places and meeting the people her recently deceased father frequented. I really enjoyed this book. I have a fascination for all things Egyptian and this story made for a great read. It's the first in a long series and I can't wait to dive in. Amelia is definitely out of her element as a women in the early 1800s and her sassy ways get her into plenty of trouble along the way. (  ) FMRox | May 8, 2013 | Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters begins the 18 volume long Amelia Peabody series. It was first published in 1975 but I didn't "discover" the series until 1989. I was sixteen and teaching myself how to speed read. I think in my enthusiasm, I missed a bunch of details and I've been misremembering things ever since. The biggest memory gaff was my belief that Amelia Peabody was American (although I knew the Emersons were British). About a year ago, a book club friend turned me onto audio books. They're great for my commute or for when I'm cooking or folding laundry. The book that got me hooked was Fatally Flaky by Diane Mott Davidsonn. It was performed by Barbara Rosenblat. She happens to also do Elizabeth Peters two series: Amelia Peabody and Vicky Bliss. I decided for giggles to re-read the Amelia Peabody series on audio and do the series in order. The book opens with thirty-something Amelia Peabody inheriting money from her late father. She decides to travel to Europe to enjoy the freedom afforded a spinster with funds. Her original traveling companion falls ill while in Italy. While on her own, Amelia encounters a young British woman who has been living in Italy in deplorable conditions. To save the young woman and to continue with her plans of visiting Egypt, Amelia takes the young waif on as her new traveling companion. Although later books focus on Amelia (or Peabody as she's mostly called later on) and her work as an Egyptologist, Crocodile on the Sandbank is her first trip to Egypt and her only trip as a single woman. This book, then is our introduction to the country, its history under British occupation, and to the early days of Egyptology. It's written in the form of a fictional travelogue and while Amelia promises her "dear reader" that she will avoid such a book. Later volumes are more character oriented (almost annoyingly so, sometimes). The mystery, part, then, doesn't come until well after Amelia Peabody and companion Evelyn are arrived in Armana and introduced to the brothers Emerson: Walter and Radcliffe (just about the only time he's known by his first name). It's also one of those rare, mundane mysteries — no master criminal (a character who first surfaces in The Mummy Case). In listening to the book after more than a decade of first reading it, I only had a few concrete memories of details. I remembered Amelia and Evelyn's meeting (though not the location). I remembered Evelyn paining a copy of the floor everyone was working so carefully to preserve. I remember the floor being destroyed. I also remembered who the murderer was but not who he was collaborating with. All in all I enjoyed listening to the book. I have a few quibbles with Rosenblat's voice for Amelia. Her British accent is a little too put on — reminding me of the haughty overtones used by the mayor's wife in The Music Man. As it's an early audio for Rosenblat and the first in the series, I'll let it slide. I've heard later ones in the series and Amelia's voice and accent are tempered (  ) pussreboots | May 7, 2013 | I loved it and I can't wait to pick up more books from this brilliant series... (  ) classicmaiden | Apr 8, 2013 | This book was very fun to read with a rather unusual narrator that I instantly liked. The setting was very interesting as were the surrounding cast. Though the very Victorian attitudes can be a bit grating they seemed very realistic considering the time period the novel is set in. A great summer read that moves quickly (if somewhat predictably) I have great hopes for the next one to be just as enjoyable. (  ) Kelsomar | Apr 5, 2013 |
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Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0445406518, Mass Market Paperback)Elizabeth Peters's unforgettable heroine Amelia Peabody makes her first appearance in this clever mystery. Amelia receives a rather large inheritance and decides to use it for travel. On her way through Rome to Egypt, she meets Evelyn Barton-Forbes, a young woman abandoned by her lover and left with no means of support. Amelia promptly takes Evelyn under her wing, insisting that the young lady accompany her to Egypt, where Amelia plans to indulge her passion for Egyptology. When Evelyn becomes the target of an aborted kidnapping and the focus of a series of suspicious accidents and mysterious visitations, Amelia becomes convinced of a plot to harm her young friend. Like any self-respecting sleuth, Amelia sets out to discover who is behind it all.(retrieved from Amazon Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:02:42 -0400) Amelia Peabody, a 32-year old Victorian gentlewoman, goes to Egypt to indulge in Egyptology. |
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