The Painted Queen
-
-
3.6 • 5 Ratings
-
-
- £4.99
-
- £4.99
Publisher Description
Egypt, 1912. Amelia Peabody and her dashing archaeologist husband, Radcliffe Emerson, are once again in danger as they search for a priceless, stolen bust of legendary Queen Nefertiti...
Arriving in Cairo for another thrilling excavation season, Amelia is relaxing in her elegant hotel suite when a man with knife protruding from his back staggers into her chamber and utters a single word -'Murder' - before collapsing on the floor, dead. It soon becomes apparent that someone has saved Amelia from a would-be assassin-someone who is keeping a careful eye on the intrepid archaeologist. And there can be only one answer: the brilliant master of disguise, Sethos.
For Amelia, this excavation season will prove to be unforgettable; one where a brilliant criminal will offer his final challenge . . . and perhaps be unmasked at last.
'Think Miss Marple with early feminist gloss crossed with Indiana Jones' The Guardian
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The long-running series by MWA Grand Master Peters (1927 2013) featuring forthright Amelia Peabody Emerson and her irascible archeologist husband, Radcliffe Emerson, comes full circle with this energetic final novel completed by Hess, Peters's friend and fellow mystery author. In 1912, the Emersons revisit Amarna, the setting of the first Peabody book, 1975's Crocodile on the Sandbank; Egypt's Service des Antiquit s director Maspero is worried about the disappearance of German archeologist Morgenstern from the excavation there. Peabody soon locates Morgenstern in Cairo, but his erratic behavior and ties to forgers of a priceless likeness of famed queen Nefertiti disturb her. Efforts to locate the original artifact are complicated by attempts on Peabody's life by men wearing monocles, an interlude with a melodramatic romance novelist, and the reappearances of the Emerson family's nemesis, Sethos. Although fans may be a bit disappointed by some unresolved questions (such as Peters's hints of a connection between the Peabody and Vicky Bliss series), the Emerson clan takes a fitting final bow as the curtain falls on a pioneering career.
