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After nearly forty years of exploration in the Valley of the Kings, the Emersons have returned for another season to dig for artifacts. Intrepid archaeologists Amelia Peabody Emerson and her esteemed husband, Emerson, aka Father of Curses, are rudely interrupted at a family supper when a famous romance writer bursts onto their terrace. Wielding a valuable golden statuette, Magda Petherick staggers into the family bosom eagerly wishing to rid herself of the accursed item that she is convinced was responsible for her husband's untimely death.
Dr. Emerson's dubious fame for dispelling curses and Amelia's reputation for her medical skills and for solving mysteries have drawn Mrs. Petherick to the Emerson estate on the Nile. Soon after, Mrs. Petherick vanishes. Has the curse struck again? Word spreads of the infamous statuette's location, placing the entire Emerson household --- which includes their son Ramses, his wife Nefret, and four-year-old twins --- in jeopardy.
Ramses has matured into an expert hieroglyphics translator whose two children are every bit as precocious as he was, much to his mother's delight. His wife is trained as a physician, and both are carrying on the family tradition.
Nefret's medical skills will be called upon as Amelia faces a crisis that threatens her life. Is the statuette really cursed? Will Emerson's exorcism drive away all, human or otherwise, who seek to reclaim the treasure and return it to its rightful home?
THE SERPENT ON THE CROWN is #17 in this enormously popular mystery series that spans the Victorian era through World War I. While the series is not strictly a roman a clef, Elizabeth Peters injects so many actual events, famous archaeological sites, ancient rulers, and even real archaeologists into the story that they ring with authenticity. I was surprised and pleased to find a former neighbor, Ambrose Lansing, who was an Egyptologist with the New York Metropolitan Museum in the early 20th century, making cameo appearances in the last few books.
Peters holds a Ph.D. in Egyptology and recently published a coffee table book, AMELIA PEABODY'S EGYPT: A Compendium, which is part fiction and part history about the Valley of the Kings. Her credentials on Egyptian exploration are impeccable, which makes these cozy mysteries all the more entertaining and informative. For new readers, the search for early editions should start with CROCODILE ON THE SANDBANK where the young, single and adventurous Amelia Peabody first alights in Egypt in the late 1800s. Longtime fans have followed her romance with the dashing Emerson, birth of the impossible son, Ramses, and cheered as Amelia triumphs over mischief, evil and an insufferable husband to become one of mystery fiction's most popular heroines.
In the last five books, Elizabeth Peters has invoked a third-person narrative she calls "Manuscript H," which is an opportunity for her grown son and his wife to make observations from a different point of view. This device allows the reader to see the action outside of the first-person voice, which helps to create a broader perspective on the action.
--- Reviewed by Roz Shea
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