Our next installment in the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters takes us to the home in England where Emerson and Amelia live during the summer months. A stranger named Forthright shows up unannounced, proceeds to faint dead away on the hearth, and revives to tell a strange tale of his aunt and uncle who have disappeared in the Egyptian desert while searching for a lost civilization. He asks Emerson to undertake a search, which Emerson flatly refuses to do, until the grandfather shows up, equally unannounced, and presents Emerson with a strange object: a page from Emerson’s own notebook, with a map scribbled on the back. Before Amelia knows it, they are on a boat for Egypt.
She thinks they are setting about business as usual, and indeed, they set up camp near the site they have chosen to dig. But then Forthright shows up, determined to set off across the desert, dismally unprepared for such a quest. When he disappears into the heat, then sends a servant back with tales of capture, the Emersons feel they have little choice. Gathering what supplies and what camels they can, they too set off, following the crude map and praying that it is correct. The heat is overwhelming and their water is diminishing rapidly. The camels begin to die, one by one, and they awaken to find that their servants have left, taking all camels but one, and all the food and water. Then, as I’m sure you guessed, the last camel dies, and they are stranded in the middle of nowhere, death looming ever nearer. At the last moment, they are rescued, and they discover that the rumors of a lost civilization are more fact than rumor, but there is more to the bargain than they ever dreamed.
Another delightful tale in the series, it will keep you up late reading, as it did me last night. (It’s how I rang in the New Year!)
(This book was published in 1991 by Warner Books.)
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