All hail the jubilant return of the redoubtable Amelia Peabody! Together with her sexy yet irascible archaeologist husband, Radcliffe Emerson; their handsome but wily heir, Ramses; Ramses' inscrutably elegant friend David; and the elder Emerson's ward: beautiful, trouble-seeking Nefret Forth--Edwardian Egypt may never be the same. The tenth in an award winning series, here is splendid entertainment as dazzling as it is daring from the hand of a respected Egyptologist. In the words of The Philadelphia Inquirer, "Amelia has really pitched her tent in our hearts."

The prospects for the 1907 archaeological season in Egypt seem fairly dull to Amelia Peabody. Despite her adored husband's brilliant reputation in his field, his dashing-yet-less-than-diplomatic behavior has Professor Radcliffe Emerson ignominiously demoted to examining only the most boring tombs in the Valley of the Kings--mere leftovers, really. All the Peabody Emersons profess stiff upper lips and intend to make the best of a bad situation, but this year the legendary land of the pharaohs will yield more than priceless artifacts for the Emerson expedition. For the desert guards even deeper mysteries that are wrapped in greed--and sealed by murder.

In a seedy section of Cairo, the youngest members of the expedition purchase a mint-condition papyrus of the famed Book of the Dead, the collection of magical spells and prayers designed to ward off the perils of the underworld and lead the deceased into everlasting life. But for as long as there have been graves, there have also been grave robbers--as well as those who believe tomb violators risk the wrath of gods like Thoth, the little baboon who protects the scales used to weigh such precious commodities as hearts and souls.

Besides facing the ire of ancient deities, their adventure into antiquity also puts Amelia and company in the sights of Sethos, the charismatically compelling but elusive Master Criminal whose bold villainies have def

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• Amelia PeabodyAmelia Peabody Mystery1961-presentamerican litEgyptHistorical FictionMystery