This is a great series starring Amelia Peabody Emerson. I loved the first book, Crocodile on the Sandbank, but since then they have gotten a little formulaic. This book was a refreshing departure from the norm. We find the Emersons discovering a modern-day (to them) civilization populated by the descendants of the ancient peoples this archaelogical family lives to study. And you can imagine the chaos that ensues with the introduction of the Father of Curses and the Sitt Hakim to this hidden city. Soon things are a mess of intrigue, assasination plots, and hostile takeovers.I love the narrative voice of Amelia and her confidence in her own and Emerson's abilities and talents. I love their stoic calm and their enthusiasm for the "marriage perquisities." I love little Ramses and would really enjoy reading about their adventures from his point of view.The Last Camel Died at Noon renewed my appetite for this series by Elizabeth Peters and I will be checking out the next book very soon!

You really need to point at Book 6 of the Amelia Peabodies, The Last Camel Died at Noon, as one of the pivotal books of the series--because it's here that arguably the most important character in the entire cast (aside from, of course, the Emersons themselves) is introduced. The Last Camel Died at Noon is the book that introduces Nefret, and it's the tale of how the Emersons discover and rescue her from a lost civilization deep in the Sudan.It's this book as well where Peters starts throwing around references to H. Rider Haggard, and in particular, King Solomon's Mines. Amelia harks back a lot to Haggard's writing as she tells the reader all about what proves to be one of the Emersons' most exotic adventures ever. Word comes to them that the explorer Willoughby Forth, long presumed to have been lost in the desert along with his young wife, may not actually have died--and that, moreover, the lost oasis they were seeking might actually exist. The Emersons are begged by Forth's father and cousin to go in search of proof of his eventual fate; the Emersons being who they are, they agree. But the journey is deeply perilous, and after the deaths of their camels, abandonment by their men, and the threat of illness and thirst and heatstroke, they are rescued by the people of the very civilization Forth had set out to locate.What happens when they get there--and how Nefret comes into it--I won't say because that'd be hugely spoilerrific. Suffice to say that there is political and social intrigue, treachery from several quarters, and Amelia getting the biggest shock of her life when Ramses encounters someone who can actually make him shut up. Five stars.

I read a bunch of these cozy mysteries when I was a kid. For a reading challenge, I needed something published in 1991 and, for my commute, I needed that book to be available on audio from my library. I spotted this and thought it might be fun to revisit this series. The narrator did a great job with the book and made this a fun and easy listen. I had completely forgotten (or maybe didn't notice) just how much sex there is here. None of it is explicit -- it's all innuendo and side comment -- but much more going on between Amelia and Emerson than I picked up on as a young reader.In any event, this is an adventure story set in Egypt. The plot is rather fanciful and far-fetched, but does involve discovery of a lost city where people are still living (somewhat) as they did in ancient Egypt. Overall, the plot carries the story forward, but the heart of the book is reading the interactions between the characters and the amusement to be had from watching these proper British archaeologists blunder about.

I have to say this is my favorite Amelia Peabody novel after the very first one. I don't know what exactly it is about this novel, maybe it is the fact that it is the first one in the series I ever read, that makes me love it but it is one of my favorite. Amelia and Emerson are as amazing, brilliant, and funny as ever, but I think the fact that we see some weakness in them is another reason that I love this novel so much. They need outside help to get them out of their situation this time and I love that. Ramses also is much more likable in this novel and not at all annoying. Also I love that the setting for most of the novel is a fantastical place instead of the ruins of some old temple as the last novels were. Of course part of the charm of the Amelia Peabody novels is that they could, hypothetically, happen, but this lost oasis story line was so full of mystery and the allure of ancient Egypt. Two princes fighting for the throne and all the other people caught in the cross hairs. Everything in this story was absolutely amazing and a great story line with great characters.

Im not sure this is really 4 Stars, I just enjoy the light-heartedness of the series so much