Replacing her beloved hot and dusty climes of Egypt for the fogs of London, intrepid adventurer and amateur archeologist Amelia Peabody finds herself dealing with a murder at the British Museum. Assisted (or more accurately interfered with) by her dashing husband Emerson, and their precocious son Ramses, Amelia must uncover the killer whilst battling supernatural curses, a pair of aristocrats with shady pasts and no real common sense, the appearance of a woman of negotiable virtue out of Emerson’s bachelor past and a potentially homicidal maniac disguised as a Sem priest. Not to mention the depositing of her niece and nephew for a visit with no known end date. Will Amelia uncover the truth? Will Emerson and Ramses manage to stop her from being added to the list of victims? Will her relatives ever leave?
This is the fifth book in the Amelia Peabody series, and it’s a rather good addition to the lot. It’s also the one where I finally realized they’re being written in a homage to H. Ryder Haggard-style, which now makes the writing make a lot more sense. It explains why Amelia is just so Amelia, and why Emerson sounds like he’s a mix between Trevor Graydon from Thoroughly Modern Millie and Harvey Korman in “Went With the Wind!” from The Carol Burnett Show. He sounds like he should have a pipe clenched between his teeth (above his dimpled/cleft chin) at all times. Ramses though, I still think is one of the most annoying, creepy, frustratingly written characters. No child talks like he does, or acts like he does. He’s two steps away from sending people to the corn fields. Though his cousins, Violet and Percy, give him a run for his money in the annoying child department. I will also say that this is the book where it is really becoming noticeable that characters fall into three categories; the Good, the Bad, and the Bad But Amelia Can Maybe Redeem Them With Her Sheer Amelia-ness. All women either love Amelia, or loathe her and yet still wind up respecting and admiring her. And all villians want to either kill her outright, or they fall madly, deeply, passionately in love with her and her strong beliefs, strong arm muscles, and prominent bust. She just gives off that much sheer Main Character energy as she blusters through with forthrightness and the stereotypical British belief of the period that the world will be a lot better as soon as it bends to her will and hops to it. Don’t get me wrong, I love the series, but even books you love you can still have a few things to get picky about.