CROCODILE ON THE SANDBANK
By: Elizabeth Peters
Barnes & Noble Books, New York
1993 (hc)
Crocodile on the Sandbank, first published in 1975, was the first
of what was to be Elizabeth Peters’ highly popular Amelia Peabody
series. This series, which now includes fifteen novels, with a new entry
to be published in March 2004, has consistently maintained a very high
standard of quality in plot, character development and atmosphere for
almost thirty years.
Elizabeth Peters, nom de plume for Egyptologist/author Barbara
Michaels, has created an enduring character that is as endearingly
irritating as any in modern fiction. Amelia Peabody, in this initial
installment, is a woman who is both thoroughly Victorian (traveling
without a female companion would be beyond the pale) in temperament, but
who chafes at the systems restrictions. Having inherited a rather large
sum, she embarks on a version of the Grand Tour, and with her newfound
companion, Evelyn Barton-Forbes, she travels to Egypt to witness the
mystery and magnificence of this ancient land. She and Evelyn meet become
embroiled in adventures that include kidnapers, tomb raiders, a handsome,
albeit irritating archaeologist in the person of Radcliffe Emerson
(destined to become her husband and fellow adventurer in the novels to
come) and even a shambling, fresh-from-the-sarcophagus mummy! Through it
all, Amelia Peabody, redoubtable heroine in the making, faces all
challenges with her quick intelligence and trusty bumbershoot.
Author Peters has cleverly combined the fusty style of the Victorian
romance (the series is an "edited" version of Amelia’s
personal journals over the decades) with insights into a 19th
Century Egypt colonized by both England and France and the development of
scientific Egyptology (embodied by the fictional Radcliffe Emerson and the
very real Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, who defined a method of
establishing archaeological chronology based upon changing pottery
styles).
I don’t know if Elizabeth Peters intended to make this a long-running
series (the second installment, The Curse of the Pharaohs, was not
published until some six years had passed following the publication of Crocodile),
but I’m certainly glad she did. The appearance of each new adventure of
Emerson and Peabody (as they affectionately refer to each other) is sure
to bring new delights to the readers of these fine mysteries.
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