| Genre: Mystery, Fiction Main characters: Amelia Peabody, Radcliffe Emerson Summary: This is the first book in the Amelia Peabody series. We get to know her at 32, after having recently inherited some money and planning to visit Egypt. She is in lack of a female companion but luckily she comes across a destitute English woman, Evelyn, whom she takes under her wing. The two go on their trip, falling in love with the pyramids and travelling along the Nile, stopping here and there to see anything of interest. They are detained at Amarna after their second encounter with the two Emerson brothers (the first one has taken place soon after they first arrived in Egypt and was none too friendly) because one of them was very sick and in need of care. Odd things begin to happen, a mummy keeps showing up at night plus some bizzare accidents, culminating with the kidnapping of Evelyn. All’s well when ends well though, as one can probably imagine that everything ended as it should have because of the 17 (yes seventeen) sequels the book has. |
The characters are quite believable in my eyes, and I found the two main ones especially enjoyable (as the other two spend more time looking at one another or worrying about one another than anything else). They are both no-nonsense people, ready to stand up for what they believe in and always ready to argue. Their love story is a bit sudden, meaning they are not interested in one another -> they kiss while in peril -> they want to get married, just like that. I would have liked perhaps a bit slower pace, like they should have had meaningful conversations together, whatever, anything to get them a bit close to make their attraction to each other a bit more believable. At least there are a few subtle hints scattered here and there but that’s about it.
The title comes from an ancient love poem: “The love of my beloved is on yonder side / A width of water is between us / And a crocodile waiteth on the sandbank.” (where the crocodile symbolizes all the perils a young love has to endure).
A likable enough book but to tell the truth I liked the other one a bit more. Worth a read though, especially if you’re into Egiptology, mystery or love stories. Just think about it, a book with that many sequels cannot be bad, can it?
This book is a prequel to:
The Curse of the Pharaohs
The Mummy Case
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