From Publishers Weekly
Set in 1910, the delightful 19th Amelia Peabody novel from bestseller Peters (after
Tomb of the Golden Bird) takes Amelia and her husband, Emerson, to Palestine, where an English adventurer, George Morley, is planning to excavate Jerusalem's Temple Mount in search of the Ark of the Covenant. Gen. David Spencer, the director of Military Operations in London, suspects Morley, an amateur archeologist at best, of spying for the Germans, whose influence has been growing in the Middle East. Spencer wants Egyptologists Amelia and Emerson to stop Morley from undertaking a project sure to offend the three religious groups that consider the temple site holy. Meanwhile, son Ramses embarks on a treacherous journey to convey to his parents important information learned from two travelers he meets while on a dig in Samaria. Once again, MWA Grandmaster Peters uses vivid settings, sharp characterizations, and deft dialogue to transport the reader to another time and place.
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Peters, named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 1998, writes wildly popular historical mysteries about British archaeologist Amelia Peabody, who is pulled into adventures by her well-muscled (this is mentioned quite a bit) Egyptologist husband and their wayfaring son, Ramses, an Egyptian grammarian who is forever being kidnapped, pursued, or lost in tombs. Since Peters is writing today, it’s difficult to tell if her overblown style (she really does say things like “muscles rippled across the breadth of his chest”) is a nod to the period (around the turn of the last century), her own send-up of romance novels, or her baroque style. What is unfortunate is that Peters, who has a doctorate in Egyptology from the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute, doesn’t do more to give readers the benefit of her broad background, other than to have the couple constantly going to Egypt on various quests that remain at the level of Raiders of the Lost Ark simplicity. In the latest Peters, the year is 1910, Ramses has disappeared yet again on a dig, and a mysterious adventurer who might be a German spy invites the Emersons (Amelia goes with) to Jerusalem on a hunt for the Ark of the Covenant. The novel moves between Amelia’s first-person narration and Ramses’ point of view (undercutting suspense over his fate). Peters’ fans, of course, find plenty to enjoy from the characters alone. This one’s for them. --Connie Fletcher
