Amelia Peabody Collection: 18th-Century Tomb of the Golden Bird

Gmom: Miss Peters didn't quite make it up to the high mark in this novel. The narrative was uneven and hard to follow. Her boasting about being "smarter than any man" was just too much in this book. I will begin the last of the Peabody series tonight and hope it will be better than this book.

United States on May 17, 2023

Martinet: Je suis une adepte de la famille Emerson-Peabody et j'adore toujours autant leurs aventures dépaysantes dans un domaine que j'adore : l'archéologie en Egypte, et ce, au temps des "grandes" découvertes (la tombe de Toutankhamon pour cette fois) ! Et le tout dans une atmosphère d'intrigues policières.
Dommage qu'il n'ait pas été traduit en français pour ceux qui ne lisent pas l'anglais. Cependant, les traductions se permettent parfois de petites libertés qui éloignent un peu de l'esprit du roman original. Donc c'est une bonne expérience de le lire en anglais.

France on Sep 09, 2020

Christina: As usual good research. Scene set brilliantly, you could be there (and I have been, frequently). Characters clearly drawn and writing style engaging. Plot wanders a tiny bit out but hardly hinders enjoyment of the book. Delightful vocabulary - little used words which need to be checked if you are that way inclined. I am aware the last few of these books were written by Joan Hess but she does so excellently. Although in UK we call a blouse a blouse and not a shirtwaist. I have now finished the whole series and will miss them very much.

United Kingdom on Aug 19, 2018

Lisa Adams: In this last (chronologically) instalment of the Amelia Peabody series, Radcliffe and Peabody are convinced that the as-yet-undiscovered tomb of King Tutankhamun lies in the Valley of the Kings. Unfortunately, banned from the Valley, they are reduced to watching from the sidelines as Carter and Carnarvon make the discovery of the century. Meanwhile, Peabody and family are lured into a trap by villains and are called upon to maintain the peace of the entire region.

You had me at Carter and Carnarvon. I spent much of my high school years reading about Egyptology, and most particularly about the discovery of King Tut's tomb. So, it was thrilling to experience a fictionalized account of the event through the eyes of the actual participants together with my favourite invented Egyptologists, and to imagine what may have been left out of official accounts.

The entire narrative is filled with the usual humour and mayhem that has endeared Amelia Peabody to legions of fans. Reading this final book has been like saying goodbye to an old friend.

Canada on Jan 22, 2018

S F Canfield: With much reference to the finding of King Tut's tomb by Howard Carter, with lots of help from Emerson of course. The other part of this novel centred on the political machinations of that area/time. So Ramses and David were kidnapped and chased and even Sethos was not privy to all the spying lark. Amelia manages it all with her usual common sense, and lists, and meetings with Abdullah!

United Kingdom on Sep 20, 2017

Texanne: The Emerson family is in Egypt in the early 1920's. The tomb of Tutankhamon has not been discovered yet, but all the signs lead to that discovery being very near. Howard Carter is an acquaintance of Emerson and Amelia, but there has been a falling out. Carter is a person who has become overwhelmed by his own self-importance.
Emerson's heart is broken because he will not be one of the first ones to see all the treasures to be found. Even from a distance, he is keeping watch to make sure that all protocols are being followed in order to ensure the safety of all the treasures to be found.
It is nearing Christmas, and the entire family is gathering to celebrate.
But as always in this family, there are mysteries in every direction. Sethos, Emerson's half brother has arrived unexpectedly. He is suffering from malaria, but he is also being followed by villains because of his work for the British Home Office. Emerson and his son Ramses have been assaulted. Gargary their elderly butler is kidnapped. There is danger afoot.
Elizabeth Peters wrote the Amelia Peabody books with a sure knowledge of archeology and a wonderful sense of humor. She created characters who were amusing...

United States on Jul 03, 2017

Kindle Customer: I absolutely loved this book. It is not the final Amelia Peabody book in the series but, it is the last one in the timeline. All of the books that follow this one come before this book in the timeline. I started reading this book with a heavy heart. It has taken me close to 2 years to read through this series and get to this book. I have become attached to all of the characters, and it was sort of bittersweet to read this book. Elizabeth Peters wrote this book in such a wonderful way. Of course we would have had the Emersons be the excavators of King Tut's tomb. Since we cannot rewrite history, Elizabeth Peters manages to write a plausible story about the Emrerson family and the how involved they are, or are not with the tomb. Without giving any spoilers, I really liked how Elizabeth Peters ended this book. I do not want to say more except that at the end of the book, you feel as good as you can feel at the end of a series that you have invested a lot of time and emotion in. Please do yourself a favor and read this book. If you have not started the series, start at Book 1 and read them in the order that they were written. It is such a lovely story and an intriguing family to...

United States on Dec 28, 2014

paul lacter: For those who have followed the Emerson family and their Egyptology adventures in the previous seventeen novels, the "Tomb of the Golden Bird" is a bitter-sweet narrative. Sweet because it's one of Elizabeth Peters' better written stories. Bitter because it appears that we're getting to the end of the series (after all, Amelia and Radcliffe must be approaching at least their sixties and even Rancliffe's "splendid physique" must give out sooner or later). Ms. Peters uses this story to tie up a number of outstanding issues from her previous stories.

For those who are new to the Emerson family, you will still be able to enjoy a read that is filled with adventure, archeology and detective work. In 1922 the purported head of the family, Professor Radcliffe Emerson is on the hunt for another tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh. Unfortunately, due to his vile temper, he has alienated the authorities and is excluded from the most promising areas of the Valley of the Kings. Emerson tries to work around this by using a rival archeologist, Howard Carter the real- life discoverer of the tomb of Tutankhamen, as a segregate. Unfortunately, for Emerson, he so angers Carter and Carter's patron,...

France on Feb 13, 2013

George Wood: This is the last of Elizabeth Peter's series about dauntless Victorian/Edwardian/World War I Egyptologist/detective Amelia Peabody. According to reports she planned to end the series with the Peabody/Emerson clan getting involved in Howard Carter's 1922 discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, and this is it.

This is not the strongest book in the series, for a number of reasons, Over the years since the series started with "Crocodile on the Sandbank" in 1975, Peters has added greatly to her cast of characters. Besides the original four of Amelia, her husband Emerson, his brother Walter, and Walter's wife Evelyn, there have been the Emersons' son Ramses, their ward and daughter-in-law Nefret, the Emerson brothers' half brother Sethos, their reis Abdullah, his grandson David and son Selim, the Emersons' niece Sennia, their American friend Cyrus Vandergelt (a gentle Theodore Davis), his wife Katherine and her son Bertie, and a whole host of English servants, Egyptian crew, Egyptolgists, etc etc.

In this book much of the time is spent just managing this unwieldy crowd.

Then there's the whole Tutankhamun discovery, which turns out to be due more to the Emersons than to...

United States on Dec 24, 2007