Rating: 
Summary: The Hippopotamus Pool
Review: Recommended by a professor, I expected The Hippopotamus Pool by Elizabeth Peters to be a great mystery novel, however the book turned out to be rather monotonous. The story starts out with the Emerson family, led by a father and mother who are Egyptologists, traveling to Egypt in order to conduct an archeological study of the tomb of Queen Tetisheri. The first climatic moment occurs ten chapters into the novel when a band of thieves attacks the Emersons. Later, the thieves kidnap Ramses, a mischievous member of the Emerson family. These two events are the only significant conflicts between the Emerson family and the thieves. The author spends too much time developing the exposition and therefore, does not spend enough time offering a resolution. Furthermore, the ending seems rushed and does not really connect with the rest of the story. Major strengths of this novel are the presence of well-developed characters and the vivid and realistic descriptions of Egypt and its ancient tombs. In addition, as a student discovering Egypt's history, Peters' use of specific and accurate references to Pharaonic Egypt provide an application of what I learned in class. Although this book does not seem to be one of Peters' best novels, I am interested enough to read another book in her series.
Rating: 
Summary: FUN
Review: The Amelia Peabody books are wonderful! They have to me what fiction is all about. Humour, Intrigue, Romance and a little bit of Education. These books make you want to sign up for a trip to Egypt immediately!!!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Not quite a best seller!
Review: The book "The Hippopotamus Pool" contains an interesting but lethargic story centered around a family of archaeologists. There is a well set up plot, but to an excessive point with the composition of the story following in a very simplistic manner. Amelia Peabody, mother of the family, tells the story from a first person perspective. With her dull personality, dry humor and constant subtle references to sexual moments with her husband, Emerson, the book drags along for what appears to be the first 300 pages. The family finally ventures into Egypt to work on a dig site when they become caught up in a search for a lost tomb. As the story proceeds you see a story filled with trickery, mystery and false identities. With the thickening of the plot and adventure you are drawn in expecting something spectacular to occur. This does not occur. The ending turns out to be a major disappointment as it complies with the standard happy ending that we find so common in today's American society. After 400 pages of fiction mixed with Ancient Egyptian facts and tid-bits it is quite amazing how unimaginative and dull Peters can make the conclusion. But she succeeds without fail and in doing so makes a mediocre attempt at a quality composition.
Rating:
Summary: a goddess of writing
Review: the characters are family to me and unlike many family members I AM ALWAYS GRATFUL FOR THEIR VISITS, IT IS NO LONGER CALGON TAKE ME AWAY. "IT'S AMEILA TAKE ME AWAY, IF YOU WANT TO HAVE FUN AND THRILLS TOO, READ ELIZABETH PETERS. WE LOVE YOU KEEP WRITING WE NEED YOU. THANKS CARLENE G. LEI
Rating:
Summary: Who is in the tomb?
Review: The Hippopotamus Pool is the only Elizabeth Peters mystery novel I have read and have no basis for comparison between her other novels. However, the cast of characters is apparently the same, which includes the feminist heroine Amelia Peabody, her robust husband Emerson, troublesome son Ramses, beautiful ward Nefret, and two cats Bastet and Anubis. Of course what mystery novel would be complete without villains, and this book has a slew of them ranging from kidnappers to grave robbers. The book has an interesting set of characters, but it takes too long to develop. By the time it actually starts getting entertaining the plot has twisted so many times that the reader forgets the original purpose of the expedition. Plus, the repetitive dialogue becomes extremely annoying. The villain that hinders the team is a reach, to say the least, and "good Gad" the ending is anticlimactic. But my most important beef with this book is that Elizabeth Peters never tells the reader which powerful Queen was in the hidden tomb. I was bracing myself for a huge shock as to the importance of the Queen. That shock never came, and bitterness soon followed, as the book left me wondering who was in the tomb.
Rating: 
Summary: Hippopotamus Pool: Dissapointing
Review: The novel "Hippopotamus Pool" written by Elizabeth Peters involves a family of Archeologists who travel through Egypt in search of the tomb of an ancient Egyptian queen who lived thousand of years ago. The main charecaters of the book are Amelia Peabody Emerson, Radcliffe Emerson, Evelyn Emerson, Walter Emerson, Walter Emerson Peabody, Nefret Forth and Gertrude Marmaduke. The author takes her readers on a journey through Egypt and its eventful past. The plot is packed with murder, deception, mystery and adventure. However, Elizabeth Peters' effort to make her plot believable leaves something to be desired. Her reasoning seems not only childish but also exceeds the realms of reality. Another great drawback of the book is that it drags on. The author's writing style seems very tedious and this makes it worse. The novels failure to introduce its reader to the main plot within the first half of the book means that it is not a page-turner. In fact it is far from it. It is full of excess information that eventually does not have anything to do with the main theme of the novel. It is very difficult to say anything positive about the "Hippopotamus Pool". The slowness of the book might have been remedied with an interesting conclusion. But Peters disappoints her readers in this category as well. Over all, "Hippopotamus Pool" was very unsatisfactory. Readers in search of an exciting novel or a meaningful insight into ancient Egyptian history are advised to look elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book: but, not as gripping as previous adventures.
Review: This adventure has all the interesting plot twists that we have all come to expect from Ms. Peters. The only caveat is the lack of excitement and anticipation generated by a truly exceptional villian. I fear Sethos will be sadly missed in future volumes.
Rating:
Summary: A fizzer
Review: This book started off so well . . . and then died. Peters so indulges herself by packing "The Hippopotamus Pool" full of almost every character of significance who has previously appeared, and then some new ones, that the focus is too diffused for proper plot development, let alone character development. And what does Peters do with the characters? Walter and Evelyn are wrecked; Cyrus and Kevin have nothing to do; after showing signs of improvement Ramses has gone downhill again; and Nefret has to be one of the most singularly boring characters I have ever come across. Sir Edward (how can a younger son have that title?) and Miss Marmaduke are afterthoughts, and David was pretty well unnecessary. Amelia is back to insufferable, so thank heavens Emerson was his usual self in this book.
Whenever the plot of "The Hippopotamus Pool" showed signs of picking up, things would go flat again. The Emersons are contacted by a mysterious stranger . . . and nothing happens. They travel to Luxor . . . and nothing happens. They discover the tomb . . . and nothing happens. Between her (I think increasingly odd) determination to have no discovery made by the Emersons impact on the real history of Egyptology and her desire to flesh out what is less and less a mystery series than a family saga, Peters in this book loses the sense of direction and fun that characterised previous books in this series. And as for the ending . . . No-one could possibly have figured it out, and that violates the unofficial contract between mystery writer and mystery reader.
So why the two stars? The journey did have its good points. It wasn't till I'd finished that I realised I felt cheated by this book.
And what...is the Hippopotamus Pool anyway? Am I missing something?
Rating:
Summary: There is no humor in verbosity
Review: This is the first book I have read by Peters so the many references to other books was lost on me. I found Peters dialogue annoying. Her husband's constant use of "Errrr" and "Hmmm" and the son's supposedly comical verbosity got on my nerves. The characters were extremely one dimensional and very unlikable. I failed to find any humor in any of it and the so called mystery remains to be one to me since the ending involved a character from another book. I would have liked to have taken Peobody's umbrella and whacked it over Peter's head. Sorry loyal fans.
Rating:
Summary: A Decent But Flawed Mystery
Review: This is the only book of the series which I have read, so I cannot compare it to the others Ms. Peters has written. I found the story to be a decent enough mystery, although the ending seemed to be more of a fizzle than a climax, and the introduction of the main villain at the end being a character which had not really been dealt with throughout the book was to say the least confusing. The books biggest flaw, I thought, was the inclusion of the constant feminist commentary. I am far from an anti-feminist myself, but I found the frequent rhetoric quite tedious and distracting
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