First published 1975, this edition May 28, 2013
When writing a book review, not only isthe title of the book and the author needed, but it's also a good idea to provide the publisher and the year published - if you are reviewing a first edition. In one sense it's not quite as necessary anymore, thanks to the fact that every story these days has a computer system so they can order the book if it is not on their shelves, and of course the website for Barnes & Noble, Amazon and used bookstore sites like ABE.com all find the book according to author and title. But book collectors who are only interested in first editions of books do need to know who the publisher is and the publication date, because they specifically want those first editions - of the hardback edition and the paperback edition if there is one. Since I'm reviewing a book that is strictly for reading purposes, and not because I expect anyone to want the first edition, I'm just giving title and author, and publication date.
My review: The opening paragraph
Elizabeth Peters, the pseudonym of the late Barbara Mertz who died in August 2013, had several series of books, but her most popular - and influential - is the Amelia Peabody mystery series, which takes place beginning in "the enlightened decade of the 1880s" and ends in 1923. The first book in the series, Crocodile on the Sandbank was published in 1975. Eighteen more books in the series followed, for a total of nineteen, with the last book in the series published in 2010, A River in the Sky.
Since I'm writing a "retro-review," of a book that was published some 40 years ago, I'm giving some background info on the book and the series itself. This type of opening paragraph would only be used for a retro-review, or reviewing a book that was the latest in a long series of books.
When I first set eyes on Evelyn Barton-Forbes she was walking the streets of Rome--Amelia Peabody, the narrator of this book, is a spinster of 32 years old who has no illusions about herself. "I am too tall," she tells the solicitor who has just told her she's inherited a fortune from her father, "I am too lean in some regions and too amply endowed in others. My nose is too large, my mouth is too wide, and the shape of my chin is positively masculine. Sallow complexions and jetty black hair are not in fashion this season; and I have been informed that eyes of so deep a gray, set under such forbidding black brows, strike terror into the beholder even when they are beaming with benevolence-which my eyes seldom do."(I am informed, by thw self-appointed Critic who reads over my shoulder as I write, that I have already committed an error. If those seemingly simple English words do indeed imply that which I am told they imply to the vulgar, I must in justice to Evelyn find other phrasing.)
In justice to myself, however, I must insist that Evelyn was doing precisely what I have said she was doing, but with no ulterior purpose in mind. Indeed, the poor girl had no no purpose and no means of carrying it out if she had. Our meeting was fortuitous, but fortunate. I had, as I have always had, purpose enough for two.
After spending her life looking after her father - an archaeologist - Amelia intends to satisfy her desire to travel. While in Rome, she meets and helps the destitute Evelyn Burton-Forbes, who has been abandoned by the man whom she thought loved her, and disowned by her wealthy uncle and guardian. Amelia employs her as a companion, not for the sake of propriety, "Oppressed as my sex is in this supposedly enlightened decade of 1880, a woman of my age and station in life can travel abroad alone without offending any but the overly prudish," but because she had been so used to taking care of her father that she wanted someone else to take care of.
While visiting Cairo, Amelia meets the dominating and rude Egyptologist, Radcliffe Emerson, and his much more engaging brother, Walter. Evelyn falls in love with Walter, but she harbors a dark secret that threatens to destroy her happiness. And when mysterious things start to happen...and a mummy walks...Amelia begins to wonder if Evelyn is quite so destitute after all...
This is an attempt to write a brief plot of the book, without giving away too much. After a summary of the plot, it's time to review the book.
The opening chapter of this book reminded me of Agatha Christie's book, The Man In the Brown Suit, which also features a woman protagonist who has looked after her elderly, archaeologist father, been orphaned, finds money enough to travel, and has an adventure...albeit in South Africa rather than Egypt. It's rather an homage to that Christie novel, but of course Peters from that homage, Peters takes her book in entirely different directions.
Amelia Peabody is an engaging heroine; intelligent, "feisty," enthusiastic about her new-found love of Egyptology, and loyal to her friends. Evelyn Burton-Forbes is at the heart of a mystery, and brings danger to not only herself and Amelia but to Radcliffe (she insists on calling him Emerson, he insists on calling her Peabody) and his brother.
Elizabeth Peters tells the tale with a sure hand. She is well-versed in Egypt and the state of Egyptology in the late 1880s - as Barbara Mertz she has a degree in the subject - and evokes the time-period so well that one can feel the sand in one's shoes and hear the grunts of the mummy....
Now it needs a summary.
Crocodile on the Sandbank was published in 1975....Peters would not publish the next book in the series, The Curse of the Pharaoh until six years later, in 1981. From that time on, however, hardly a year passed that did not see a new Amelia Peabody book, as Peters covered the history of Egyptology - and the world - as in World War I - right up until 1923. The series came to an untimely end in 2010, as Peters began a long bout with cancer, finally succumbing in 2013.
Her novels, and in particular her Amelia Peabody series, will live on.
