Amelia Peabody Books In Order
Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.Publication Order of Amelia Peabody Books
Crocodile on the Sandbank | (1975) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Curse of the Pharaohs | (1981) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Mummy Case | (1985) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Lion in the Valley | (1986) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Deeds of the Disturber | (1988) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Last Camel Died at Noon | (1991) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Snake, the Crocodile and the Dog | (1992) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Hippopotamus Pool | (1996) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Seeing a Large Cat | (1997) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Ape Who Guards the Balance | (1998) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Falcon at the Portal | (1999) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
He Shall Thunder in the Sky | (2000) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Lord of the Silent | (2001) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Golden One | (2002) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Children of the Storm | (2003) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Guardian of the Horizon | (2004) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Serpent on the Crown | (2005) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tomb of the Golden Bird | (2006) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A River in the Sky | (2010) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Painted Queen | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Chronological Order of Amelia Peabody Books
Crocodile on the Sandbank | (1975) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Curse of the Pharaohs | (1981) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Mummy Case | (1985) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Lion in the Valley | (1986) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Deeds of the Disturber | (1988) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Last Camel Died at Noon | (1991) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Snake, the Crocodile and the Dog | (1992) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Hippopotamus Pool | (1996) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Seeing a Large Cat | (1997) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Ape Who Guards the Balance | (1998) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Guardian of the Horizon | (2004) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A River in the Sky | (2010) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Falcon at the Portal | (1999) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Painted Queen | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
He Shall Thunder in the Sky | (2000) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Lord of the Silent | (2001) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Golden One | (2002) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Children of the Storm | (2003) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Serpent on the Crown | (2005) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tomb of the Golden Bird | (2006) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Amelia Peabody is the main character in the Amelia Peabody Series, a set of historical and mystery based novels written by the Egyptologist Barbara Mertz. Amelia is Married to the dashing and opinionated Egyptologist Radcliffe Emerson, and both share one biological child named Walter Peabody Emerson aka `Ramses`.
Amelia Is protruded as no nonsense, straight forward woman who was more than capable of calling the shots in her late father’s estate and tormented local merchants in the course of transactions. She does not like women who manipulate their sexuality to get what they want and is an avid proponent of Suffragette Movement. Amelia is also a fan or romance although she keeps denying it. She is a traditional lady and believes in love and mutual respect with a sole partner in throughout her lifetime. Her dress fashion and attitude draws a lot of attention and wonder from her neighbors and society. She walks armed is Armed with one of her collection of parasols and her leather belt that is festooned with many hidden compartments.
These compartments entail a sharp steel knife, pistol, whisky, candles, notebook and pen, compass, scissors and a first aid kit. While Amelia might own a pistol and gun, she is a poor shot drawing critiscim from her partner that she might end up doing more harm than good. Her family is involved in mitigating criminal transactions and she has extensive experience in deciphering most of the cases. However she egotistically views herself as an expert in the area to the point of disparaging some law enforcement authorities. This in tandem with her stubborn demeanor causes her to over analyze problems causing her to hold incoherent opinions which are detrimental for her and her family.
Her extended family is connected to Egyptian roots, in that, her niece is married to Abdullah`s Coptic Christian grandchild. Unfortunately Abdullah dies and Amelia starts seeing visions of him in her dreams and he offers her advice and warning, indicating how close they were. An avid proponent of sexual equality, she raises her adopted daughter, Nefret Emerson with what she believes are her ideal values. Amelia’s Egyptian nick name is `Sitt Hakim` which means Woman Nurse. This was handed to her after her subsequent arrival in Egypt, where she demonstrated great compassion for Egyptians. For instance she would treat a multitude of eye infections that were prevalent at that time. Her greatest personal conflict is her love hate relationship between her and Sethos whom she first encounters as a Master Criminal. She is somehow convinced that she is somewhat unattractive and will never marry or submit to a man’s wishes blindingly.
Books in the series
The Amelia Peabody series is a collection of nineteen historical mystery novels all engendered by Egyptologist Barbara Mertz under the pen name Elizabeth Peters. The series is centered on key figure and protagonist Amelia for whom the series is named and an a array of other characters to support her role. The novels entail a mix of romance mystery and tad of bit of satire to add to its well balanced comic tone. The series was published between the years 1975 and 2010 with the final installment set to be released in 2016-it was in editing when the author passed away(2013).
Most of the setting is in Egypt with only two books namely Deed of the Disturber and A river in the sky being in different settings. The series also spans a thirty nine year period ranging from 1884 to roughly mid 1923.The Peabody books series also does well to integrate various historical figures and events including but not limited to William Flinders Petrie, Gaston Masepro and events such as the First World War and the Raid on the Egyptian Canal.
The initial eighteen books in the series were created in chronological order, with the Guardian of the Horizon being the only exception to order. Elizabeth Peter revealed that her plan was to take the series through to World War 1 and halt in 1922 at the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun. The main reason being that aging the character was becoming a rather daunting task.
Below is a review of some of two earlier books in the series
Crocodile in the sandbank-this book title is from an ancient prose where its directly scrapped of a certain line in the prose and used as a coherent theme for the book. The novel has a rather humorous tone evidenced by the parody and criticism of many of the stereotypes and dogmas, as well as doctrines popular at the time.
Amelia has just inherited a large estate from her late father. She uses the wealth wisely in that she travels the world to follow her passion for antique collections. In Rome she meets the impecunious lady, Evelyn Forbes, who has been disowned by the family after she was discovered trying to elope with an Italian art teacher. Evelyn subsequently employs Evelyn and takes her to her abroad travels to Egypt. It is here where they meet The charismatic Emerson Brothers Radcliffe with whom she falls in love with in the pyramids and Walter who later becomes Evelyn’s husband.
Funny enough Amelia and Radcliffe don’t like each other but circumstances are bound to alter their attitudes. When Radcliffe becomes bed ridden with illness, Amelia controls his excavation business and they begrudgingly begin to like each other. Walter seems to be quite the ladies man as Evelyn is so attracted to him, but she’s convinced she can be able to marry due to her poor reputation. The plot thickens as Evelyn’s first cousin Lucas comes with bad news of her grandfather’s death, his earned inheritance and a proposal of marriage. As these issues continue to entangle, Amelia and Walter have to mitigate the weird visits from a moaning desert mummy. After the mystery is solved, Amelia decides to remain in Egypt and advance her archaeological escapades, with her Husband by her side.
Curse of the pharaohs- here three new characters are introduced Cyrus Vandergelt who is a rich and novice American Archaeologist, and as the years progress he develops into Professor Emerson`s closest friend. Bork is the second character and is an expert in hieroglyphs and appears in a number of books in the series, usually as a handyman for the Archaeologists. The third character is O`Connel who is a reporter and finally becomes an exceptional platform for the Emersons and their expeditions.
In this book of the series we notice that Amelia and her family are residing in Kent in England in some of sort of set up that neither of them really enjoys. They have each decided that its best to pause their archaeological expeditions to let their son grow in a healthy environment. Emerson earns a living as a university lecturer but none of them enjoys their current lifestyle and long for a preemptive return to the dusty digs where they met. Opportunity comes knocking when Lady Baskerville is looking for an exceptional team to help complete what her late husband had initiated. Lord Baskerville died under unclear circumstances as he was In the process of excavating a tomb. After some extensive deliberation, the couple decides to leave their toddler son behind in the care of Emersons brother Walter and his wife Evelyn to oversee the Bakerville project in Egypt. They arrive only to find out that more murders are continuing and rumors of ghost who has been disrupting on goings at the dig. The Emerson are soon embroiled in investigation where they set a goal that they must unmask the killer of the late lord.
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Book Series In Order » Characters »
Started reading this series in middle school in the late 90’s. It was The Ape Who Gaurds the Balance that introduce me to Elizabeth Peters, and further enahnaced my love of Egypt and history. Every year since the publication of the Painted Queen, I reread the series and enjoy it more and more. There is always some detail that i have missed on prior reads. I have the series in a physical and kindle format. The physical books have a prominate space in my office/library and can always been seen in my background druing virtual meetings along with the books on Egyptology under her real name Barbara Mertz.
I am not accustom to reading books this much but I have to admit that I have not been able to put these down. I had hopes of being an Egyptologist in my younger years (I am now 76) but life got in the way so I live vicariously in your stories for which I thank you for writing such captivating thrillers. I sometimes donate books to schools, libraries, etc. but these I will keep and most likely read again with the same enjoyment as I do today.
Thank you Graeme! I have enjoyed the series in the correct order because of your work! (LOVE IT!)
You’re welcome! Thanks for taking the time to write!
Thank you! I have enjoyed the series in the correct order because of your work! (LOVE IT!)