The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters

5 stars
R- 1? maybe
An Amelia Peabody book (#3)

I love Elizabeth Peters.

I needed a light cozy mystery the other day and this fit the bill perfectly.

In this volume, the Emersons take their son Ramses (age 6? it never really says) to Egypt with them.  That child can get into more mischief than Denis the Menace!  It's hilarious.

Another great mystery.  You don't have to read these in order, necessarily, but you might want to.  It never hurts.  :)  Start with Crocodile on the Sandbank.

The Camelot Caper by Elizabeth Peters

4 stars
r-1

That is a totally different cover.... and it makes no sense.  Oh well.

Anyway, what a fun romp about England!

A while back I raided my aunt's bookcase-- looking for Amelia Peabody books-- and simply grabbed everything by Elizabeth Peters, assuming they all belonged to that series.  (Which I acknowledge is dumb.... Like grabbing everything by Dorothy Gilman and assuming they're all Mrs. Pollifax books.)  I was sorting through them the other day trying to figure out what order to read them in and realized three were not Amelia Peabody books at all.

This one is a stand-alone, at least as far as I can tell.  A "romantic suspense" about a girl with a ring and a few random English relatives she's never met.  But before she can get to the old family homestead, people start chasing her about for no apparent reason.

All in all, a great light summer read.  Fluff, really.  :)

The Curse of the Pharaohs by Elizabeth Peters

5 stars
R- 2
Sequel to Crocodile on the Sandbank

I LOVE the way she talks about her son.  Hilarious. 

Amelia, the narrator, not the author.

Anyway.

Cracks me up.  Sounds a bit like how I talk about my kids.... not that I want to leave them with relatives for months at a time.  Okay, so maybe I want to sometimes, but I wouldn't actually do it.  Probably.

Crazy shenanigans in Egypt again demand the expertise and logic of Emerson, and, of course, his faithful Peabody.  He's not about to go without her.  (Which is good for the reader, since everything is from her point of view.)

Mysterious deaths, a "curse", a ghostly figure causing trouble...  It's all getting in the way of an excavation that could potentially be one of the greatest finds ever.  Which just irritates Emerson to no end. 

Another great installment.  I'm looking forward to reading more of these.  (This one did take me longer to get into, but that's totally me being restless, not a fault of the book!)

Counts for the Support Your Local Library Challenge!

Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters

5 Stars
R-1 I suppose.... just a hint of Victorian innuendo ;)

First of all, let me say that a) that's a much better cover than the copy I read, b) it's a travesty that the library only has one copy, and c) the "armchair detective" edition that is the said only copy is rather poorly edited.  (Okay, on further study, it is NOT actually the only copy in the library system, but I'll be darned if it wasn't harder than heck to find the others.)

This is technically a re-read for me, but it's been untold years since I've read it, so it was almost like reading it for the first time.  (Untold because I simply cannot remember.  It probably wasn't really actually all that long ago.  A decade, maybe?  The older you get, the shorter a decade seems.....)

Anyway.

What was I saying?

Oh right, the book.  I love Amelia Peabody.  And I love Radcliffe Emerson.  And the two of them together provide no end of entertainment.  :)

Really, if you're a fan of "cozy" type mysteries and/or historical fiction, you should read this one.  And it's not even a murder mystery, so if the murder and gore is what generally puts you off mysteries, have no fear on this one.  Okay, so there is a mummy.  Well, sort of.

Oh, just go read it.

It's also the first in a series, but I can't remember if I ever read any of the others.  Which is something I intend to remedy.

The strong resemblance to the Mummy movies doesn't hurt anything either.  :)

Counts for the Support Your Local Library challenge!