The Mummy Case

Rating:
Summary: Book #3 in Peters' Amelia Peabody series
Review: Part of what makes me love this book--and the others in Peters' Amelia Peabody series--is that it's so delightfully uncategorizable. It's a mystery set in historical Egypt, but the time period is not, as one might expect, in the BC years; rather, the novel is set in the late 1800s. The main characters are a family of British Egyptologists (parents Radcliffe Emerson and Amelia Peabody Emerson and young son Ramses)--the parents of said family being based very loosely on historical figures (in Radcliffe's case, William Flinders Petrie and, I believe, in Amelia's case, Amelia Edwards).

Peters brings all kinds of historical characters into this series, intermingling them with her own characters and using them in her plots without shame. Into the series she brings names of real archaeologists, like William Petrie and Howard Carter. Seeing as how he's based on the guy, one might think that Radcliffe Emerson would, in the books, get along well with Petrie; in fact, Peters has made her character a rival with Petrie. The results are hilarious, with Peters shamelessly playing with real historical events, inserting her characters into those events, and creating her own version of real Egyptological events. She weaves tons and tons Egyptological facts in with her plots, and readers lap them up and ask for more, not even realising how much they must be learning about Egypt--not just ancient Egypt, but the political events and standing of Egypt in the last 1800s, and into the 20th century, including the role Egypt played in WWI.

This particular book in the series (book #3, in fact, in a series of 14) is a mystery set in the desert. The Emersons are excavating at Mazghunah, near Dahshoor (for those of you who know anything about Egypt!). Of course, they soon get tangled up in a wicked web of theft, murder, and scandal. Peters still manages to keep her plot and writing light and deft, though, as she weaves together history and fiction, and her writing and characters are side-splittingly funny. Dialogue is one of Peters' strong points, as evidenced by young Ramses' monologues and his parents' responses, and the fact that the adult Emersons claim to prefer cryptic speech, yet ramble as much as their son, when allowed.

Peters has written a hilarious and entertaining novel, a romp through history and Egypt, the writing deft and light, the plot rich, the characters unique and lively while still being hilarious paradies of steriotypical, stock characters.