| Genre:Mystery, Fiction Main characters: Radcliffe Emerson, Amelia Peabody Emerson Summary: The book takes place in Egypt, 1892-1893. Egyptologists Amelia Peabody and Radcliffe Emerson are happily married with one kid. They have a nice quiet life and they are bored to death, missing the life of discoveries they had before they got married. Their opportunity comes when a fellow egyptologist who had just discovered an unopened tomb died suddenly. As his assistant had also dissapeared, rumours begun circulating about a pharaohs’ curse laid on that tomb. However the egyptologist that died has left in his will provisions for the exploration of that tomb to be continued, so his wife hires the best in the field (our Emerson and Peabody) to continue digging. As people keep dying around them and their household, sparkling more and more rumours of a curse, each of the two is separately trying to find out the murderer and bring him to justice. |
Emerson is a very dynamic character, short-tempered but with a heart of gold. However it is quite funny to see how everyone in Egypt fears him (especially the wrong doers), calling him Father of the Curses and rarely daring to stand up to him. He loves theatrical effects and acting in disguise. He’s also very passionate when it comes to his work and a very careful archaeologist. Amelia is a strong willed woman, also in love with her work, and very courageous. She’s the only one who dares to stand up to her husband, knowing him to be the “more bark than bite” kind. The two are very much in love and make a wonderful couple, even though they spend about half of their time arguing about one thing or another.
This is sort of an Agatha Christie-like book, as we have a bunch of characters in the same household, each with his own secrets and schemes, which sometimes can seem enough to become murder reasons. We have not one but two detectives, both trying to put things together and find out who killed those people and why. The writing style is fast-paced and entertaining, so if you’re into mystery books you really should give this one a try.
The book is a sequel to:
Crocodile on the Seabank
The book is a prequel to:
The Mummy Case
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