The Jackal's Head (original 1968; edition 1988)

Elizabeth Peter's first book published in 1968 shows the promise she will fulfill in the Amelia Peabody series. Althea Thomlinson comes back to Egypt 10 year after she left at the age of 17. She hopes to clear her father's name. He was disgraced for trying to sell fake antiquities--and died soon after in a crash. Dr. John McIntire is head of the Luxor Institute, and he is a template for Emerson in the Amelia Peabody series. There is a question as to whether the tomb of Nefertiti might be in the valley of the kings. And Althea and John play cat and mouse with each other and some killers. ( )

Not the best Peter's mystery - too much Electra complex. Still, it is set in Egypt and the heroine is smart - an archeologist (it's set sometime in the mid-seventies, but I think this may have been a for-runner for Amelia - the heroines are much the same except for this one is a bit of a nut job over the death of her father, whose innocence of a crime she is attempting to prove by working with his old partner, who she subsequently falls in love with, though much like Emerson and Amelia they fight like cats and dogs throughout much of the narrative. ( )

I thought I had read all of Elizabeth Peters' books, but happily, I found one that is new to me! Imagine Amelia Peabody in modern setting, and you have a hint of this book. The excitement of finding new and untouched burial sites, the romantic connection that reminds one of Emerson - it's a very enjoyable book. Good mystery. ( )

Althea, also known as Tommy, decides to return to Egypt after an apocryphal letter from her old friend, Abdelal, that makes her realize her dad wasn't a forger. It seems he may have found the lost tomb of Nefertiti, but died mysteriously before telling anyone.

This is a good book- I wonder if it was the precursor to the Amelia Peabody books (it was written several years prior). The character of John reminds me a lot of Emerson in those books. ( )

Kirkus Reviews Althea Tomlinson, ostensibly chaperoning a man's daughter to Luxor, actually hoping to learn why her archaeologist father died, or was killed, meets his former colleague, John (romance) and discovers an as yet unplumbed tomb in the Valley of the Kings. She's also trapped there with an unbelievable discovery of papyri, sarcophagi, jewels and. . . murderers. . . . Forget the archaeological, pause over the first syllable, don't argue with the last three, and consider it as an easy option if you need this kind of gauzy Gothic entertainment.
(Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 1968)

Althea Tomlinson returns to Egypt to clear her archaeologist father's name of a scandal that drove him to his death. ( )