It's 1903 and the Emersons are back in Egypt. Ramses and David have spent six months with a sheik and have both matured but it will take Amelia some time to reconcile herself to her son not being a child anymore.

The receive a cryptic message telling them to stay away from a tomb that doesn't exist. They also receive a plea for help from an old friend. Her husband has fallen for a spiritualist and is hunting for a lost Egyptian princess.

Then a Southern Colonel requests their help with someone who seems to be intent on kidnapping his nubile teenage daughter who is as spoiled and headstrong as a rich young woman can be. She sets her sights on Ramses who is not at all interested since he has long since fallen in love with Nefret who only sees him as a child and a brother.

Between searching for a tomb that doesn't exist, helping out an old friend, and protecting while fending off a predatory young woman, the Emersons have their hands full.

This episode includes excerpts from manuscript H which tells parts of the story from Ramses' point of view and provides more insight into his character and another viewpoint on the events of the story. Amelia's viewpoint dominates and is as eccentric as ever.

This was another excellent adventure for the Emersons. ( )

2019 reread via Recorded Books audiobook narrated by Barbara Rosenblat

This book marks the first one in the series to contain "manuscript H", narrative from Ramses's point of view. ( )

A real turning point for the series, this is the one where Ramses becomes grown up. Although he's always been precocious, with a vocabulary of mile-long words and a tendency to know just a little bit more than the adults around him, in this book he also becomes an action hero and the tall-dark-handsome type who has trouble shaking off admirers.
The other "children" have also grown up and solidified as characters, including Nefret, feisty and tender-hearted, and David, responsible, serious, and always in up to his neck with the plans his two contemporaries dream up.
Add to this the ultimate power couple of Amelia and Emerson, and you have A Family To Be Reckoned With. They can do anything.

The plot in this one involves a rather macabre modern day mummy, a couple of troubled old friends from a previous book, and a firm friendship with Howard Carter (whom they like, but in kind of a patronising way...a fun nod to the modern-day reader who knows exactly what's going to happen in later years/books). ( )

A later book in the Amelia Peabody detective series finds Ramses now 12-years old and falling for the Emerson’s ward, Nefret They are back in the Valley of the Kings and someone is sending Amelia ominous messages, “Stay away from tomb Twenty-A” This of course is like waving a red flag in front of a bull to Amelia and she decides she must find the tomb. But first Emerson’s excavations uncover a mummy that seems to have died under mysterious circumstances, and Amelia is off, Parasol in hand, to get to the bottom of the mystery.

This mystery series is great fun. ( )

This book marks the entry of the next generation of Emersons, as Ramses, David, and Nefret become viewpoint characters. ( )