Friday, November 24, 2017

The Painted Queen

The Emersons are the target of five assassins out to avenge the death of their brother Geoffrey Godwin, Nefret's late husband. In The Painted Queen by Elizabeth Peters  and Joan Hess, the Emersons are off to Amarna.

Amelia and family are searching for the bust of Nefertiti at an archaeological site being excavated by German archeologist Herr Morgenstern. Herr Morgenstern has left the site under mysterious circumstances, allegedly after Nefertiti has been discovered.

Not wanting to point the finger at Morgenstern, Ramses and David search through the suks of Cairo to find a master forger's workshop. Their hope is to find the bust in the workshop.

And oh yes there are five assassins seeking vengeance on Amelia and Ramses. The brothers - Absalom, Guy, Cromwell, Judas and Flintworthy are out to avenge their brother in the craziest ways possible. Judas bursts in Amelia bathroom but someone has stabbed him in the back first. Guy blows himself up with an attempt at dynamite, Cromwell loses his head. And so it goes. Just another day in Egypt.


Meanwhile the search for Herr Morgenstern continues. Amelia follows him out into the desert where he appears to be in the middle of another psychotic episode and about to have heat stroke. She herself is almost overcome, but stout Amelia that she is, she wrangles Morgenstern back to Amarna and to the tender mercies of Nefret.

In Cairo, Ramses and David discover several copies of Nefertiti.
Unsure what to do with the copies, they carefully package them into a truck and hire a mob to escort them to the train. Never a dull moment for the Emersons. Even Sethos, the Master Criminal, makes an appearance.
 
So sad to finish the last Amelia Peabody Emerson book by Elizabeth Peters. I will have to go back and read the others again, I guess.  

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