The Jackal's Head

Gentle reader, do not judge author Elizabeth Peters (one of several pseudonyms employed by author and Egyptologist Barbara Mertz) for her debut mystery-romance cozy. It has not held up well since it was first published in 1968, a much more sexist and violent time. The arrogant love interest spends most of the novel verbally abusing our allegedly plucky heroine, Althea “Tommy” Thompson, and even bruises her due to his uncontrolled anger. She’s a poster child for co-dependency. (Sadly, this isn’t a spoiler: You can tell from the beginning that she’s going to end up with this controlling domestic abuser.)

Is the book worth a read? It depends on how much time you have on your hands. The mystery is an interesting one. But The show more Jackal’s Head is not even close to the standard set by her later books, such as her Vicky Bliss series (begins with Borrower of the Night) or her Jacqueline Kirby series (begins with The Seventh Sinner). Readers would also love the paranormal mysteries, most of them standalones, that Mertz published under the pseudonym Barbara Michaels.

So make your own decision. You can hold your nose to the outdated misogyny in order to sample a decent plot. Or you can decide that, on second thought, with so many great books that Mertz produced under various pseudonyms, you’ll just skip this one. show less

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.

This romantic suspense title was a reread for me. I likely read this one more than 40 years ago. Since I saw it as an Audible Plus title, I decided to listen to it this time.

Althea Tomlinson grew up in Egypt where her father was an archaeologist. She left when she was fifteen and her father died in an accident shortly afterwards. But when a letter comes from an Egyptian who worked with her father, she feels she needs to go back and find some answers and get some closure.

Not having the funds to travel on her own, she eagerly takes the job of chaperoning a spoiled teenager who is on her way to Egypt to rendezvous with her father who is a wealthy collector of antiquities. Her attempts to remain incognito are ruined when she meets a couple show more of her father's colleagues - men she blames for her father's disgrace - and finds herself moving in with them after an attack.

There is a hidden tomb, antiquities thieves, and a growing romance. The story was told through Tommy's voice and viewpoint. I was reminded a lot of the author's Amelia Peabody series but mainly I think because of the character of one of the archaeologists. Of course the setting is the same though this is a contemporary story rather than historical fiction.

It was an entertaining story to listen to. It was also a pleasure to revisit the story after such a long time. I enjoyed it this time too. show less

Althea Tomlinson aka Tommy has come back to Egypt, incognito, to prove that her father shouldn’t have been exiled from the archeologist digs there. So she’s dyed her hair and taken up a job chaperoning a rich guy’s daughter around. And everything is going swimmingly until she finds out that the person with proof of her father’s innocence has kicked the bucket. That’s pretty shitty for her, but not entirely unexpected; after all, the guy was pretty ancient.

Now Tommy is stuck in Egypt without the proof she needed to clear her father’s name and stuck baby sitting a spoiled teenager. And things really start going downhill from there when the man who got her father exiled, John, barges into her hotel room pretty pissed that show more she’s back in Egypt. John was her father’s colleague and friend, but that all ended when John turned him over to the authorities. So now Tommy, in a round about way, blames John for her father’s death. John is the other reason why Tommy wanted to get proof, she basically wants to rub it in his face that he was wrong, but that’s not going to work so well with him and his faithful sidekick dogging her every waking steps. And things really start to get insane when more people start getting hurt or go missing.

One of my major pet peeves with this book was that we had a Jack and a John. Jack is the name of Tommy’s dead father and despite him being dead his name still pops up constantly and it doesn’t help that Tommy usually refers to him as Jack and not Dad or father or whatever. And of course John is another major character. So I had a hard time for a while trying to figure out if Jack was the father or if John was. But I might be the only person who gets a little confused by things like that. One of the other things that bothered me in this story and is a major factor that I know would bother a lot of other people is under the spoiler thing, so high light or whatever to see it.

Now for the good part, the "what I loved part." No one writes mysteries in Egypt better than Peters does. When she’s writing in this scenery she really shines. In her other stand alones, while you do get a good feel for the scenery, none of them quite pop off the pages like her books set in Egypt do. This is why I assume her Amelia Peabody books are such a hit. (There’s a million of ‘em)

Peters really weaves a tight plot with this one. So if you love mysteries and are looking for a fun one set in an environment you usually don’t see, then I suggest this book or really any of Peters’. show less

A young woman is lured to Egypt to try to uncover the truth of her father’s disgrace and death ten years earlier. Along the way she discovers a plot to loot an undiscovered tomb of a Pharaoh.

This Elizabeth Peters mystery was extremely disappointing. It was painfully predictable, and full of nothing but unlikeable and annoying characters.

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.

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.