Barbara Michaels (1927–2013)

I've now read this three times, I just can't remember exact dates -- there's no ritual re-read on June 29.

I love Amelia Peabody -- I love her parasol wielding ferocity, her outspoken opinions, her snobbish British upper class self, with its disdain for propriety that doesn't suit her and her big heart. I find her exasperating, endearing, hilarious, and I deeply enjoy her fraught, over-the-top Victorian adventures.

That said, oh, damn, why do I love a book set so firmly in British show more Colonialism, with all its toxic, reeking miasma of racist opinions and filthy behavior? I think the opinions of Egyptians expressed in this book are rancid and ignorant. I think this changes and develops over time, so I will see how much it continues as I re-read the series on audio. show less

I have been eagerly awaiting the final installment of the Amelia Peabody series ever since I heard that the late author Elizabeth Peters had one final book in the works. Thanks to the gracious folks who responded to my request at William Morrow/Harper Collins Publishers, I was able to get my hands on this advance reader's edition, and you may be sure that I devoured it!

For those who may be coming to this book with no prior knowledge of the series, even though this book is #20, it fits show more chronologically about two-thirds of the way into the series and fills in a gap between previously published books. The Painted Queen will certainly be most meaningful to you if you have read the books that precede it, but I think it would stand up even if you came to it without that context.

That being said, here are my thoughts:

This is a stellar addition to the Amelia series. On page one, I admitted to myself some reservations. Joan Hess is the co-author for this work; I wondered, how would the collaboration flow? Would I really recognize my favorite characters? Would I be able to suspend disbelief and go along on their adventures with the same thrill I've gotten in many of Elizabeth Peters' other works?

I realized by about page seven that the answer to all of those questions was YES! In fact, this book may actually mark the series' peak of comedy, derring-do, and suspense. It's very, very funny, and the action is tightly plotted without any slow bits.

I love the premise, which is absurd and therefore sits fair and square in Amelia's world. Without any apology whatsoever, she OWNS the fact that her life is straight out of the most sensational of novels. She and her family of archaeologists are just beginning their latest venture in Egypt when a villain with a monocle bursts into her bath chamber, gasps "Murder!" and collapses in a dead heap on the floor moments before he would have strangled her. Naturally, she hoists herself out of the tub and begins going through his pockets. When she and her husband Emerson begin speculating about the presence of the monocle, she immediately informs him that it must be the insignia of a secret society, and that assassins sometimes travel in gangs.
"Assassins do not travel in gangs," says Emerson.
(They are the perfect duo!)
This is the point at which I began to dissolve into fits of chuckling.

And that is just the beginning of an adventure that involves a whole parade of monocled men named after the great traitors of history. Also, you know the iconic treasure sitting in a museum in Berlin, the Nefertiti bust? The Emerson family is seamlessly inserted into that historical narrative. (I love the way Elizabeth Peters has always had them at or near the scene of great discoveries, but always in such a way that real history is left intact...they get their hands all over the story, but in the end they leave no trace!)
So, yes, the Nefertiti bust has been discovered, but then it vanishes, but then it reappears again...and again...and again...how many of them can there be? Amelia's son Ramses and his best friend David traverse Cairo hunting down each new copy.
This keeps Ramses mostly away from Nefret, the Emerson family's ward, now a grown woman with a tragedy in her past. Readers of The Falcon at the Portal and He Shall Thunder in the Sky know that since this new book is filling in that chronological gap, the relationship tension must be kept intact. It simmers ever so slightly below the surface.

I must mention one other big thing that I adored in this book....the appearances of the Emerson family's perpetual nemesis (actually, at this point, "frenemy" is probably a more accurate description). Yes, it's Sethos, or as Amelia likes to call him, the Master Criminal. His disguises and plots are ongoing joys of the series. When he shows up in The Painted Queen, it's with greater panache than ever before. There are thundering hooves. There are dramatic interventions. It's glorious. Those who know the rest of his story will revel in these moments.

So, in review, this book is everything I wanted the last Amelia Peabody novel to be. I'm sad that there won't be any more of her adventures, but I'm happy that The Painted Queen is such a fitting swan song. I am totally elated to have read it, and you will be too. It goes on sale July 25!

***SO MANY THANKS to William Morrow/Harper Collins Publishers who provided me with this free advance copy in exchange for an honest review show less

Deliberately written to sound like the works of H. Rider Haggard, this Amelia Peabody adventure was filled with over-the-top melodrama and adventure.

This year's dig is planned for the Sudan but before they can get started, Amela, Emerson, and Ramses are off following a dubious map to locate an explorer and his wife who have been missing for twelve years. However, the map also hints at an archaeological treasure: the remnants of a long dead culture.

From almost dying of thirst in the desert show more to finding themselves in the middle of a Royal coup, Amelia, Emerson, and Ramses have all they can handle. And despite Emerson's pleas, Amelia gets involved with the aristocracy and even helps out a pair of young lovers.

I enjoyed the now-ten-year-old Ramses part in this story and only wish the Amelia would spend more time listening to what he has to say. However, that would shorten the story and I enjoyed every action-packed minute of this audiobook narrated by Susan O'Malley. show less

Smoke and Mirrors, by Barbara Michaels, is a multiple-time re-read for me; I first encountered Ms. Michaels (aka Elizabeth Peters) in the early 1980s and have read just about everything she's written - and re-read a fair number of them too. This one is particularly apt during an election season, as the setting is that of a US Senate campaign in about 1988. Young Erin Hartsock goes to work for charismatic Congresswoman Rosemary Marshall, who has given up her cozy seat in the House to run for show more Senate. But mysterious occurrences - the appearance of a sinister "poppet," several small fires - start to plague the campaign, and Erin and Nick McDermott, campaign media consultant and love interest, must try to determine what in Rosemary's past is returning to haunt her, before those minor incidents turn deadly.... Michaels' writing is a pleasing mixture of humour, romance and gothic suggestion, but what I especially enjoy about this book is the political angle. For example, at one point Rosemary rails against PACs: "....in actual fact, PACs were set up to get around the laws limiting the amount of individual campaign contributions. If I could afford it, I'd refuse to take PAC money, even from organizations whose aims I would ordinarily support...." Wonder what she would make of today's Super-PACs! show less