Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters

This 19 book series starts in the 1880's. It has fabulous characters; Egypt and excavations; murder abounds!

LOL - been there, done that, own the whole series. They are very funny and I read and re-read them every so often.

I wanted desperately to love these. I enjoyed the first book, grit my teeth through the second, and deleted the third one from my e-reader after thirty pages or so. They just didn't work for me; I felt the characters became caricatures of themselves after about halfway through the second book.

However, I loved Mertz's Red Land, Black Land and her other non-fiction on Egypt.

They are a private joke - a take-off at gothic novels and must be read as such.

I've got the series on my TBR list, but since that's quite a long list, it'll be a while before I get around to reading them ;).

>4 pinkozcat: Er, a take-off on gothic novels? I don't see that. A take-off of golden age detective fiction, perhaps. And definitely a case of one woman's meat being another one's poison. ;)

I love them, I read the first, but the rest I've listened to on audiobook. Barbara Rosenblat who narrates is hilarious! She is simply superb doing all the voices. I think I'm on the 14th book now, I highly recommend them on audio!

I found the first books in the series to be quite delightful. However, with the last several volumes she does seem to be phoning it in, something that is not uncommon in a long series. I have not infrequently stopped reading a mystery series when the author began to do what I can only term "writing by rote".

#8
I agree that in the last couple of books Peters seemed to just be rounding off the family saga and retiring Amelia and Emerson.

I've read all but one or two of these. They aren't my favorite series, but I do like to revisit many of them from time to time (cheaper than air tickets to Egypt). I think that Peters was on a book-per-year schedule, and she didn't always edit carefully--and then when the books became so popular, perhaps editing wasn't foremost in her mind. So they are uneven in quality, and some of them have a high degree of melodrama. If you read Peters' non-fiction books, you will see that she did indeed have a taste for melodrama, and she indulged it even when writing history (for example, speculating about the alleged murder of Hatshepsut--for which there is absolutely no evidence). She also overdid the cuteness in some of the Peabody stories. She obviously thought the juvenile Ramesses' lisp was cute and funny; many readers found it extremely annoying. Ramesses was much easier to take as an adult character. I also got really tired of the family saga aspect to these books and the recurring
"Master Criminal" theme. On the other hand, there are some wonderful descriptions of Egypt, the occasional appearance of real archaeologists in cameo roles (especially the young and earnest Howard Carter in Seeing a Large Cat, my favorite of the series), and the likeable Egyptian characters. Some stories featured little-known locations, too, places off the beaten path of most casual tourists, and that was a plus.

I think that Peters read a lot of bilge in her spare time, and her recreational reading influenced her writing. If you read the Jacqueline Kirby novels, you might remember a book entitled The Lustful Turk, which figures in Die for Love. You probably thought she made that up, didn't you? No, there really is such a book!

I gather that Peters was on a 'ten book' contract but I am not sure that happened after that - I lost contact with my informant. I think that she probably carried on because they were such money spinners.

I am listening to Night Train to Memphis by Elizabeth Peters which has Vicki Bliss as the main character. I am also reading The Falcon at the Portal by Elizabeth Peters. My first read of the Vicki Bliss series.