Crocodile on the Sandbank

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 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 show more re-read the series on audio. show less

Plucky English gentlewoman meets homicidal mummy in Victorian Egypt - excellent fun.

This is an excellent light read, guaranteed to bring a smile to the reader’s lips and perhaps even provoke the urge to shout “Hurrah” from time to time.

This was my first encounter with the redoubtable Amelia Peabody, an unmarried English gentlewoman who. having decided to use her recently inherited wealth to pursue her passion for Egyptology, finds herself adopting a young woman of damaged reputation , working alongside a fierce and focused archaeologist who has a will and a temper as strong as her own, and confronted with what appears to be a homicidal mummy.

The book is written in the form of a journal in which Amelia Peabody addresses the reader show more directly, showing us the world through her eyes. Amelia has a sharp wit, a strong will and absolutely no tolerance for people who flap about rather than getting on with what needs to be done.

Set in the 1880s, when Egypt was jointly ruled by the British and the French, Gordon was besieged at Khartoum and the British Empire was at its zenith, Elizabeth Peters brings to life the brio, pride and pragmatism that powered the empire. The language is authentic without being impenetrable and the plot has just enough twists to be interesting without having to venture into the implausibly Byzantine.

The book is carried by Amelia Peabody, you either like and admire her or you should be reading something else. I’m sure this is an opinion she would share.

Barbara Rosenblat gives Amelia the perfect accent for her class and period and does a creditable job of producing distinctive voices for the wide range of characters, male, female, English and Foreign that populate this tale.

I recommend this audio book to anyone who needs cheering up but cannot tolerate saccharine feel-good slush. This is more like a brisk walk and pleasurable cup of tea with a stimulating , if slightly overwhelming, companion. show less

It has been many years since I've read a mystery story, and I wasn't quite sure if I would still like them as much as I had in my youth. Either I do, or I simply chose the right book with which to renew that genre interest, because I found Crocodile on the Sandbank to be an enjoyable read. It reminded me of a cross between Indiana Jones and a younger version of Miss Marple or Jessica Fletcher (I loved Murder, She Wrote when I was a kid), or perhaps a more mature version of the Nancy Drew books that I was crazy about in my tweens/teens, only in a more exotic location. Crocodile on the Sandbank, and the entire Amelia Peabody series, fall into the cozy mystery genre as they are very gentle mysteries that aren't particularly frightening and show more don't have any objectionable elements. Even more mature content like Evelyn's affair is merely alluded to and never spelled out in so many words. This made for some fun, old-fashioned sleuthing that is, in my opinion, appropriate for mystery aficionados of all ages, although the advanced vocabulary and authenticity of the historical voice would probably be more suited for teen and adult readers. Elizabeth Peters began writing the Amelia Peabody series in the 1970s, and had I heard of it back then, I may have been reading them as a teen.

Amelia was a fun character to read about. She is a firmly on-the-shelf spinster who has no intentions of marrying and an independent woman of means, so she decides to indulge her passion for history and her dream of traveling by going on a trip to Egypt. Amelia is an unflappable, no-nonsense woman with a plucky, adventurous spirit and a very straight-forward way of dealing with life. This forthright nature was very much in evidence in the first question that she asked Evelyn after her friend confessed to having had an affair. Somehow, it didn't really surprise me, but it did make me laugh nonetheless. Amelia is also a feminist who has little use for the traditional Victorian conventions, and sometimes wishes she had been born a man, so that she would be more respected. Even though Amelia is very much a thinker and a scholar, it is obvious that she has a very kind heart and a willingness to help others. She is quite skilled in medical matters and assists many people along the way who are sick or injured which always seems to help put her in their good graces. She is also the consummate matchmaker when she realizes that Evelyn has fallen in love. I found it interesting and amusing that Amelia immediately recognized Evelyn's love for Walter, but when she started falling for Emerson, she didn't initially discern it as the same emotion in herself. All in all, I really admired Amelia, and a part of me would love to be her, but in reality, I'm probably much closer in personality to Evelyn.

Crocodile on the Sandbank is told in first-person perspective with Amelia, of course, as the narrator. It is written in a slightly different style than other first-person books that I have read, so it took me a little while to get used to it. For me, the reading of the book was rather like sitting down to tea with Amelia while listening as she related her story. It had a rather quaint, intimate feel to it. The book takes a “just-the-facts” approach and is a little light on descriptive details of the environment. In fact, early in the story, Amelia comments that she will not indulge in such descriptions so as not to bore the reader, and if the reader wants more detail, they should go read a travelogue. Normally, this would be a downside for me, because I tend to enjoy lush, vivid depictions of the setting, but for the most part, enough information was given to make me feel like I was in the hot sands of the Egyptian desert with Amelia. There are also not a lot of deep insights into the secondary characters. The reader really only gets to know them through Amelia's eyes. Even though I usually prefer to know the other characters' thoughts and feelings, I once again, for the most part, did not view this as a weakness as I normally would. I think this was owing in large part to the genre. Since the story is primarily about the mystery of a mummy stalker who appears to be trying to scare them away from their archaeological dig site, rather than the relationships, I didn't necessarily feel a burning need to get inside the other characters' heads like I would if it were a romance.

As things were, I got to know the other characters well enough. I liked Amelia's friend, Evelyn. She is a sweet, and perhaps slightly naïve, young woman who allowed herself to be seduced by a scoundrel which ruined her relationship with her grandfather and left her destitute. Amelia rescues her off the street and hires her as a companion for her trip. On the outside, Evelyn seems very delicate, but on the inside she is made of much sterner stuff than one might think at first glance, and in spite of her indiscretion, she has a certain strength of character as well. I adored Evelyn's love interest, Walter, the more charming and amiable of the two Emerson brothers, a team of archaeologists who are working to unearth the history and treasures of Egypt. If he were one of my romance heroes, he'd be the sweet beta who gets all moony-eyed over his lady love, but can't quite bring himself to declare his feelings. Yet, when he finally does (at Amelia's prodding), it was in the most romantic way possible, giving me a major, “Awwwww!” moment. Then there is Emerson. Actually his name is Radcliffe, but Amelia never calls him by his first name. It's OK though, because he always call her Peabody instead of Amelia too. If Walter is the romantic beta, Emerson is the alpha. He's rude and abrasive, rarely having anything nice to say about anyone, and he gets under Amelia's skin in more ways than one right from the moment they meet. Although Emerson certainly tries his best, Amelia never allows him to run rough-shod over her, instead giving back as good as she gets whenever he let the insults fly which made for some fun bantering. Even though he could be a real bear sometimes, I liked that Emerson's heart was in the right place when it came to the preservation and proper study of the antiquities that were being treated with flippancy even by the government agency that was supposed to be protecting them. Other than the antiquities though, Emerson could seem pretty cold and indifferent at times, so it took me a while to really warm up to him. When he finally started to reveal his feelings, it was worth the wait.

Aside from the colorful characters, Crocodile on the Sandbank had a fun plot. In fact, I waffled a bit on my star rating, and the only thing that really prevented it from earning keeper status from me was that the pacing is a little too slow in places. Especially during the first half of the book, there are several long passages of narration where there isn't much excitement or action. There are also a couple of passages where a secondary character goes off into what is essentially a soliloquy of narration. Preferring a more liberal mixture of narrative and dialog, I found these passages to be a bit too sluggish for my taste, leaving my mind occasionally wandering. Once the mystery portion of the story really got going, I thoroughly enjoyed the action, adventure and intrigue, as well as trying to figure out the answer to the puzzle. I did correctly discern the culprit and their motive (although not all the details of “how”) before it was revealed, but it didn't detract from the fun of getting there, as I ended up second guessing myself more than once. Overall, the narrative built very nicely to an exciting conclusion. Anyone who enjoys a good mystery/adventure yarn with a plucky heroine, an exotic setting and a dash of romance, should like this book. Crocodile on the Sandbank is the first of the Amelia Peabody series, and my first read by Elizabeth Peters. I found it to be a nice departure from my usual romance fare that has left me looking forward to trying the next book in the series when I'm, once again, in the mood for something different. There are currently 18 books in the Amelia Peabody series. A complete list of all the books and their recommended reading order can be found on the official Amelia Peabody website. show less

This book introduces Amelia Peabody who will eventually feature in 20 books written between 1975 and 2006. Amelia is a semi-proper Victorian lady who, after inheriting a comfortable income upon the death of her father, decides to travel the world.

Beginning her journey in Italy, Amelia discovers a gentlewoman in distress and decides to make Evelyn her companion. The two travel to Egypt because Amelia wants to visit the pyramids and other Egyptian antiquities. She meets irascible archaeologist Radcliffe Emerson while touring a museum in Cairo.

The two meet again when Amelia stops her voyage south on the Nile to view the site he is excavating only to find him desperately ill and in need of her medical care. Not only does she fall in love show more with Emerson but she also falls in love with Egypt and Egyptology.

Meanwhile, her companion who is the disinherited granddaughter of a very wealthy Earl has troubles of her own. She is fleeing the Italian lover who coaxed her away from home and dealing with another Italian cousin who is the heir to her grandfather's property. He really wants to marry Evelyn who has fallen in love with Emerson's brother Walter.

This story has mummies some of whom seem to have left their graves to frighten both Amelia and Evelyn, bat-infested tombs, superstitious natives, and all sorts of danger and adventure. It was a fun story to hear since Amelia, who narrates the story, has her own unique and eccentric viewpoint.

The story has a lot of historical detail since many of the characters who are talked about were real people and the leading archaeologists of the day which is about 1890. show less

Amelia Peabody, an eccentric and outspoken woman for her time, and a "spinster" by choice, pauses in Italy while making her way to Egypt for a pleasure tour. There she befriends Evelyn, a young woman in complicated circumstances, and invites her along as her traveling companion. The two ladies begin a trip up the Nile, stopping in Amarna where a mystery unfolds before them.

Amelia is a hoot, and it might be fun to see where this series goes. The author is a professional archaeologist, so she really knows what she's talking about when it comes to incorporating those details into the plot. However, the zeitgeist as presented (both the setting in the mid-1880s and publish date of 1975) are a bit off-putting. Even the "good guys" frequently show more drop casual racist comments. For that reason, I'm not sure I'll read further. I've got too much good stuff on my list to spend time reading something that makes me cringe. show less

This book is a bit of an older vintage, since it has been written in 1975, but it still reads extremely fresh – or rather, it would, if this was not the kind of book you’re unlikely to find in publisher catalogs today. It’s a slow-burning, slowly building mystery that reads like a mix of a gothic story, an Agatha Christie novel and an Indiana Jones novelization, with a middle-aged, self-reliant heroine who has both the makings of an excellent governess and of an even more excellent army surgeon, who orders men around and is obeyed even when those men think she is being a meddling, ignorant woman, because not doing what Amelia Peabody wants is never a good idea. Nowadays, you might say she wasn’t a likable character, but good show more lord does Amelia Peabody not care whether anybody likes her or not. It’s not her job to be liked. In fact, as an independent heiress of her father’s if not fortune, then still rather considerable wealth, nothing is her job if she doesn’t want it to be. The job she wants is that of an archeologist, and when the opportunity arises, she grabs it by the throat and doesn’t let it go till it surrenders and gives her whatever she wants. Amelia Peabody is the kind of person I want to be, even though I might not personally fancy crouching in the sand and being burned to a crisp day in and day out. (Other than, say, Ella, who would love to become a archeologist-flavored crisp.)

FEMALE FRIENDSHIP MAKES EVERYTHING AWESOME

“Crocodile on the Sandbank” is the first book in a series 19 historical mysteries by Egyptologist Barbara Mertz aka Elizabeth Peters, and as such it sets the scene for the whole premise of ‘Amelia Peabody, archeologist adventurer’.

We first meet Amelia shortly after the death of her father, and we learn her reasons for not marrying (namely, that she’s no interested in any of her suitors and feels that most of them are out for her fortune anyway, since she’s not exactly of marrying age anymore). Instead of finding a husband and giving up all that nice money, she decides that, after years of being her father’s helpmate and then nurse, it’s time for her to indulge a little, so she decides to spend the winter sailing up the Nile, like many English people did in the 1880s. But when she comes to Rome, from where she’s supposed to sail to Alexandria, her travel companion becomes sick – and without a travel companion, there is no way even a woman in her 30s could go to Egypt (and even today that’d be kind of a bummer, wouldn’t it? Who wants to spend the whole winter all alone?). But lo and behold, on a walk through Rome she stumbles over Evelyn Barton-Forbes, an English girl sick and down on her luck after she eloped with her Italian tutor and then was left by said Italian tutor, in a city where she doesn’t know anybody, and with no way back, since her grandfather disinherited her. And so, Amelia found herself a travel companion after all, and off they go to Egypt.

I don’t usually put plot descriptions into my reviews, but I love the set-up of “Crocodile on the Sandbank” a lot, even though the beginning is a little slow, especially because the whole book is narrated by Amelia herself and her often slightly meandering style takes a little getting used to. Once you do get used to the style of the book, though, it just feels so authentic that I actually found myself thinking that the book might have been written a lot earlier than 1975 (this is again a case of a friend recommending me a book and me reading it without even looking up when it was written). At no point does the description of Amelia’s surroundings sound anything but absolutely natural, if kind of sober, except when Amelia starts waxing poetic about archeology and archeological findings. There is also a lot of jargon and a lot of the kind of professional gossip that just makes you feel like you’re there yourself, in 1880s Egypt, hearing about all those new developments and controversies in the world of archeology.

I guess ‘new developments in archeology’ should be a great segue to Emerson, but to be honest, I don’t like Emerson, so let me talk about Evelyn first, because Evelyn I do like, very much so. If anybody had tried to create a character just for me to enjoy, then I’m pretty sure that character would be very close to Evelyn. She is kind, shy, and, let’s face it, kind of fatalistic, and she faints about 8 times in the novel (seriously, so much fainting), which makes her a very stark contrast to no-nonsense, cast-iron parasol wielding Amelia, whose only reason to faint would be if she worked under the brooding Egyptian sun for 12 hours without drinking a sip of water, which is a very likely thing for her to do.

But still, Evelyn might not be physically strong, but when the going gets rough, she is very much able to hold her own and to postpone the fainting on later, when it’s save to do so. She is also amazingly loyal to Amelia – and she is also the most likely person to make sure that Amelia does not spend 12 hours under the brooding Egyptian sun without drinking some water. Evelyn doesn’t only pay back her salvation by Amelia by being her constant companion and helpmate, even in very difficult situations (did I mention that Amelia fancies herself an amateur nurse?), but by opening up to her, showing Amelia her most secret wounds, she also gets Amelia to open up herself. Theirs is one of the most beautiful female friendships I’ve read in a long while, and, let’s face it, there aren’t that many of those in fiction in general.

A DESERT FULL OF DUDES

Okay, now let’s actually talk about Emerson. God, I hate that guy. I guess he redeems himself later, and I guess his assholery plays into the whole broody-hero-trope, but just… What. An. Asshole. He basically introduces himself to Amelia by yelling at her for gently removing some dust from an extremely neglected exhibition piece in an extremely neglected museum, implying that she is a stupid woman and that she is a ‘rampageous British female at her clumsiest and most arrogant’. And then he just keeps on insulting her. I hate this guy. He might be a visionary archeologist and Egyptologist, and he does get a little less obnoxious later on – a little – and the fact that his brother Walter is a huge sweetheart makes reading about him a little more bearable – again, a little – but still, I did not grow to like him. What an ass.

It might be thanks to the rather matter-of-fact writing style of the book that I still enjoyed it so much, even with Emerson being his asshole-y self. The book never actually claims that Emerson is not an asshole, just that he and Amelia have the kinds of personalities that sometimes work well together. I didn’t need to like him to understand why Amelia eventually takes a liking to him. And to be honest, that is quite an achievement.

One thing I did like was the portrayal of Egyptian natives in the book. There was definitely a certain distance between the native Egyptian characters of the book and the English characters, but in a book set in 1880s Egypt, that is pretty much a given. However, Amelia shows great respect both for her translator Michael and for the crew of the pleasure ship she chartered, under Captain Hassan. As I already said, Amelia fancies herself an amateur nurse, and she earns quite a bit of respect among the men on her ship by stitching them up whenever there is any kind of injury. This mutual respect creates a certain loyalty between both the crew and Amelia, which later turns out to be of vital importance for the plot. And while there are several descriptions of misogynistic behavior among the Egyptian natives in this book, the fact that Radcliff ‘Let’s Yell at Strangers’ Emerson is also in this book at least makes it clear that misogynistic thoughts, actions and words aren’t a monopoly of Muslim men.

The plot of “Crocodile on the Sandbank” is a mix of travel novel and mystery, though less of the whodunit kind and more of the gothic-inspired ‘we need to figure out what is behind these strange goings on’. There is a mummy, and there is an action-packed finale involving so many characters that at some point you’re like ‘Wait, who’s where now?’, but the whole thing is a lot of fun, even though the mystery plot really only kicks in properly at the 50% mark of the book. Still, the thing that I enjoyed most wasn’t necessarily the plot, but the characters, the descriptions of 1880s Egypt (which were surprisingly less racist than I’d have imagined), and Amelia’s very palpable love of archeology. The book might be over 40 years old by now, but it honestly is a perfect example of how the distance between an author and a historical novel, especially if an author is an expert on the subject field she writes in, can transcend time differences between an author and a reader, so that it just feels so fresh and current that I’m pretty sure it’s still going to be a great read in another 40 years.


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“Men are frail creatures, of course; one does not expect them to exhibit the steadfastness of women.”

Barbara Mertz was one creative gal - she hooked me with her gothic mysteries under the Barbara Michaels penname, but I never indulged as much in her straight mystery stories under the name Elizabeth Peters. I finally took the plunge and tried the first book in her long-running series set around Egyptian adventures.

Amelia Peabody is quite a character - feminist for her times, tough and determined, loyal and intelligent. She can get down and dirty with the best of them when it comes to discovering, uncovering and fixing up artifacts. Without intention, she amuses characters and readers alike with her antics and attitude. She may be show more stuffy, but she's fun to like. Prim and proper can deliver the most giggles, especially with bad luck befalls on her and her companion on their travels. In this first book she discovers her love of ancient artifacts and Egypt.

Side characters give fun times too - where would Amelia be without her loyal and sweet companion, Evelyn, and the brothers Walter and Emerson? It's not a particularly romantic book and it's kept completely PG, but sparks start to fly and I'm sure most readers were happy when Emerson finally starts losing his prejudice towards Amelia and sees her for what she is: an ideal partner in exploration, both Egypt and life.

The mummy stuff was just funny. Practical Amelia refuses to be scared off by demented legends of the small minded populace, but even she must face stumbling mummies wrapped in bandages when they try to break into her camp!

It's a mystery without a murder, but there's plenty to figure out. The ambience of Egypt erupts through the pages, making me feel a bit of an itch myself when it comes to traveling and marveling at the world's mysteries. Nah, I'll just sit at home and read (I'm not luckily wealthy like Amelia and fear Egyptian snakes too much), but still...let's hear it for the Armchair Travelers. show less