Amelia Peabody

In her best-selling Amelia Peabody mysteries, author Elizabeth Peters has created an award-winning mixture of vivid archeological detail, finely-tuned suspense, and witty romance. This, the 12th Amelia Peabody mystery, opens in 1914. As the tides of war rise, Egypt is threatened by attacks. Espionage abounds, pulling in several members of the Peabody Emerson household even as they embark on a new archeological season.

Each book in this bestselling series is greeted with cheers by the ever-growing number of fans who relish the adventures of the Emersons, a family of Victorian archaeologists. The shifting sands of intrigue and wry humor that fill these mysteries are always a delight.

In 1917, with the war looming in the distance, Amelia and her family return to Egypt for an extensive archaeological dig after learning of another tomb that was desecrated by thieves. Hot on their trail, Amelia's family is thrown into disarray when her son, Ramses, is called away by the British government for a covert operation in Gaza, the gateway to the Holy Land. As a spy, Ramses accepts the assignment, but his meddling mother is lurking not far behind.

The year is 1919, one year after WWI has ended. Amelia Peabody and her husband, Emerson, finally feel they have a moment to rest. Their family is all gathered together in their Luxor, Egypt, home, including their son, Ramses, their daughter-in-law, Nefret, and their two grandchildren. Just as the dust from the war begins to settle, a new wind kicks up, and their lives take a turn for the worse. Soon after the discovery of a well-preserved tomb, some of the treasure is stolen.

Listeners have long wondered what befell the Emerson clan during the years before the Great War. Now, at last, the silence is broken, and the truth revealed of a perilous journey to a secret and mysterious place hidden deep in the heart of the unforgiving desert.

Banned forever from the eastern end of the Valley of the Kings, eminent Egyptologist Radcliffe Emerson's desperate attempt to regain digging rights backfires—and his dream of unearthing the tomb of the little-known king Tutankhamon is dashed. Now Emerson, his archaeologist wife, Amelia Peabody, and their family must watch from the sidelines as Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter "discover" the greatest Egyptian treasure of all time.