Books : Lion in the Valley (Amelia Peabody Mysteries)

Rating: - Parts of the book are a little tedious but on balance it is still a good story, especially for teenage girls.
This is the fourth book in the series. I've only read the first and fourth books. Here, I loved the Ramses character. He is an 8 year old boy with a genius mind and great luck. I did not like the way his mother cut him off so much and refused to listen to him. She was also jealous of his ability to find entrances to tombs and other archaeological finds before she could. I lost some respect for her in this book because of that. It was still a good book, but I preferred the first book in the series: Crocodile on the Sandbank.

CAUTION SPOILERS: In this book, we learn that Sethos, the master criminal, loves Amelia and plans to kidnap her and keep her secluded until she learns to love him back. He appears in different disguises in this book.

Sexual language: none. Number of sex scenes: none. Setting 1895 Egypt. Copyright: 1986. Genre: young adult, mystery, adventure.

There are many books in this series. Following are the titles of the books with the setting years in parentheses. The years that these books were published range from 1975 to current. The setting years range from 1887 to 1922. The following list may not be complete, but is given as a starting point for someone wanting to try the series from the beginning.

Crocodile on the Sandbank (1884-85), Curse of the Pharoahs (1892-93), The Mummy Case (1994-95), Lion in the Valley (1895-96), The Deeds of the Disturber (1896), The Last Camel Died at Noon (1897-98), The Snake ,The Crocodile, and The Dog (1898-99), The Hippopotamus Pool (1899-1900), Seeing a Large Cat (1903-04), The Ape Who Guards the Balance (1906-07), Guardian of the Horizon (1907-08), The Falcon at the Portal (1911-12), He Shall Thunder in the Sky (1914-15), Lord of the Silent (1915-16), The Golden One (1916-17), Children of the Storm (1919-20), The Serpent on the Crown (1922), Tomb of the Golden Bird (1922).

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Rating: - Another Shirt Ruined!
This is another great Amelia Peabody mystery with all the melodrama, adventure, and comedy you could wish. It follows one of the main story threads of the series as Amelia attempts to track down the Master Criminal!

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Rating: - Get rid of Ramses
I am having a problem getting past the third chapter. I enjoyed her first two mysteries when she met her husband-to-be and then the birth of her son Ramses. Now I am getting a bit tired of the bratty son and the recurrent Master Criminal. How about a new plot? I don't know why Peters has made the son such an obnoxious character. Then there is the adolescent relationship between Peabody and Emerson. Who cares, just get to the mystery. Unfortunately, I have purchased three more of her books and will probably skim through them trying to find the mystery.

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Rating: - Fourth Book in the Series

Elizabeth Peters was born and brought up in Illinois and earned her Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago's famed Oriental Institute. Peters was named Grand Master at the inaugural Anthony Awards in 1986 and Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America at the Edgar Awards in 1998. She lives in a historic farmhouse in western Maryland.

The Amelia Peabody books may or may not be an acquired taste, personally I love them. They are set in Victorian times when there were still very strict rules of etiquette and polite behaviour was the norm. Although most of the books are set in Egypt, in the desert under very trying conditions and extremely hot weather the `English' way of life was still expected to be adhered to, sometimes with quite hilarious consequences.

Amelia Peabody is Elizabeth Peters' best loved and brilliant creation, a thoroughly Victorian feminist who takes the stuffy world of archaeology by storm with her no nonsense dress sense and forthright opinions.

Yet again the lives of Amelia's son Rameses and her husband Emerson rest in her hands. Her prowess as an amateur sleuth is needed when her son is abducted in the dead of night and an expedition haunted by misfortune and death, have alerted her to her arch enemy who has sworn vengeance on Amelia who is determined to bring him to justice as quickly as possible.

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Rating: - Lion in the Valley
As always I really enjoy Amelia Peabody mysteries. The humor plus the twists and turns make for great reading.