The Curse of the Pharaohs

In the first book of this series, Amelia Peabody was an amusingly practical and unemotional woman, far ahead of her times (the late 1800s). She had a sort of Tracy-and-Hepburn back and forth bantering relationship with a male Egyptologist, and you just knew they were going to fall in love. They did, and got married. This book picks up a bit later, when Amelia and Emerson have a small child and are living in England, waiting until said small child is old enough to take with them on excavations in Egypt.

The child is obnoxious, and precocious, of course. His nickname is "Ramses," which is supposed to suggest his charming stubbornness. A few pages of Ramses was enough to hope that he and his speech impediment would fall down a very deep show more well. So in a way, it's lucky that the reader isn't subjected to much of young Ramses. Why not? Well, in short order there's a mystery in Egypt that simply must be solved, and since Ramses is too young to accompany them, Amelia and Emerson leave the toddler at home with his aunt and uncle and venture off without him for months. Now, I don't blame them, kind of, because like I said, the kid is annoying. But I'm a reader and they are his parents and in theory, they should maybe be more attached to him than this? Also, they chuckle about how he bullies his cousins and they're all terrified of him and boy is everyone going to have lots of "fun" with Ramses while we're gone, hahaha. On the other hand, Amelia's parenting of the child is like Ayn Rand raising a baby in a Skinner box. The less influence she has in his life, the better he will probably do.

The rest of the book, in Egypt, is tolerably interesting. The mystery is fine, all accidents and deaths that the natives think are related to a curse on the tomb Amelia and Emerson are excavating. Amelia and Emerson are less enjoyable sniping at each other now, and I don't really think it's Emerson's fault. I think the fault is partially that Amelia is telling the story and she thinks she is oh-so-clever and oh-so-charming, of course, and partially that the "hate meet" is charming for a courtship, but should probably have the edge taken off for a marriage. It's not cute little jabs - it seems like Amelia doesn't like or think much of Emerson, really. I suspect that this is why Peters adds in frequent references to all the sex that Amelia and Emerson are having - they can't keep their hands off each other, so obviously 1. they actually do like each other and 2. Emerson forgives Amelia for her constant malicious remarks. But I don't buy it.

If the child were the only problem, I could maybe see going forward with this series. In fact, I'd been looking forward to doing so because it's nice to have something light and entertaining to read interspersed with heavier books. But I find that I just can't stand Amelia. She's turned from a spirited, sarcastic woman into a harpy.

Recommended for: the virulently childfree (after the first 30 pages or so), women who mistake being a harridan for being strong.

Quote: "Only one ripple mars the smooth surface of my content. Is it concern for my little son, so far from his mother's tender care? No, dear reader, it is not. The thought that several thousands of miles separate me from Ramses inspires a sense of profound peace such as I have not known for years." show less

Imagine, if you will, that Lady Catherine de Bourgh from Pride and Prejudice is reincarnated towards the middle of the nineteenth century as a woman called Amelia Peabody. She develops an interest in archaeology, and marries an Egyptologist who is supposed, I think, to be stirringly alpha male but who is in fact emotionally and physically abusive. She delights in establishing how intelligent and feisty she is by denigrating other women, and spawns an obnoxiously precocious offspring who has a cutesy nickname, an even cutesier speech impediment and the ability to comprehend archaeological reports and offer opinions about them by the age of three. All this would have been irritating enough, but Peters caps it all off with godawful show more Orientalising tropes and an Irish character so overwhelmingly stereotypical (a redheaded freckled Irishman called O'Donnell who frequently says "top o' the morning" and "begorrah" and is compared to a leprechaun) that I'm surprised I didn't develop a facial tic while reading. Dreadful. show less

Another delightful mystery, the second book in the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters (aka Barbara Michaels, Barbara Mertz). The story is worth reading for the first chapter alone with the hilarity of Ramses Emerson's adventures and opinions, Amelia and Radcliffe Emerson's "catastrophically precocious" son. Despite Amelia's acerbic tone when describing Ramses, she has obvious pride in him though her mind yearns for Egyptian escapades. The author has a gift for creating very colourful secondary characters whether they are animals or ghosts, children or adults and gives each a distinctive voice and personality. I am looking forward to reading more about Ramses and the Egyptian cat that has adopted Peabody and Emerson as its owner.

I show more think the Amelia Peabody mysteries have captured me fully and I am well on the way to becoming obsessed with the series, like I already am by the Lady Emily Ashton series by Tasha Alexander and the Lady Julia Grey series by Deanna Raybourn, having purchased and already started reading The Mummy Case with The Lion in the Valley waiting in the wings. Very fitting as I believe Barbara Mertz pioneered the historical fiction mystery series featuring a strong female protagonist. No doubt I will end up reading the entire collection. So I highly recommend the the Amelia Peabody mysteries for those who like humor and wit with murder and mayhem in a historical context.

My Rating: 4.5

http://myobsessionwithbooks.blogspot.com show less

This is the second Amelia Peabody adventure and is told in her own distinctive and eccentric voice. When the story begins, Amelia and her husband Emerson are stuck in England because neither wants to leave their young and precocious son Ramses bur are worried for his health if they take him to Egypt.

When Lady Baskerville comes to see them in England, they are persuaded to go to Egypt - leaving Ramses behind - to work on a tomb discovered by her late husband who died mysteriously. The newspapers are saying that he died of a mummy's curse which neither Peabody nor Emerson believes. However, something is wrong. There are other murders and attacks and the native workers are very reluctant to work on the tomb in case the curse might be show more real.

Peabody and Emerson compete with each other to be the first to discover what is really going on and find themselves in all sorts of danger as they investigate.

I love Amelia Peabody's eccentric viewpoint. The book is filled with quirky characters who all might have reasons for the troubles at the tomb. I especially liked the old woman who is certain that Emerson was her lover in a past life.

The narration was excellent. Susan O'Malley does a great job with the pacing and with making each character distinct. show less

This is the second Amelia Peabody adventure and is told in her own distinctive and eccentric voice. When the story begins, Amelia and her husband Emerson are stuck in England because neither wants to leave their young and precocious son Ramses bur are worried for his health if they take him to Egypt.

When Lady Baskerville comes to see them in England, they are persuaded to go to Egypt - leaving Ramses behind - to work on a tomb discovered by her late husband who died mysteriously. The newspapers are saying that he died of a mummy's curse which neither Peabody nor Emerson believes. However, something is wrong. There are other murders and attacks and the native workers are very reluctant to work on the tomb in case the curse might be show more real.

Peabody and Emerson compete with each other to be the first to discover what is really going on and find themselves in all sorts of danger as they investigate.

I love Amelia Peabody's eccentric viewpoint. The book is filled with quirky characters who all might have reasons for the troubles at the tomb. I especially liked the old woman who is certain that Emerson was her lover in a past life.

The narration was excellent. Susan O'Malley does a great job with the pacing and with making each character distinct. show less

I love the narrator, I love how you don't get the solution until everyone does and I especially love how you see the narrator sometimes fake it, like "'yes, of course I know what you're planning.' I didn't.".

This second Amelia Peabody book is even funnier than the first. Peters deftly makes her heroine an intrusive narrator with much less self-awareness than she arrogates to herself. There are laughs on nearly every page.

I'm beginning to think that the mystery element in these novels is "self-spoiling"--largely as a consequence of the integrity of Peabody's character. She wants to impress the reader with her acumen as an intuitive sleuth, and so she retrospectively emphasizes her first distaste of the actual culprit. In a conventional mystery, such strong early suspicions would nearly disqualify a character from being the chief evildoer, but in these stories, they have been a reliable indicator.