Review of THE GOLDEN ONE by Elizabeth Peters
William Morrow, 2002
Emerson and Amelia Peabody have a new archeological dig, Ramses is overjoyed with his wife, and Amelia's adoptive family continues to grow, but all is not well in World War I era Egypt. Tomb robbers have discovered an ancient temple and are sneaking artifacts out, and are willing to kill Emerson and Amelia to preserve their treasure. The British army has bogged down outside of Gaza and its intelligence community desperately wishes to get Ramese back in the fold. And somehow, Amelia has to manage all of this while hoping that she will soon become a grandmother. Naturally, Sethos--Emerson's half brother and something of a love interest for Amelia is back and in the midst of both tomb robbing and the war.
Author Elizabeth Peters (see other BooksForABuck.com reviews of novels by this author) has created a wonderful set of characters in the extended Emerson family. Emerson's bull-headedness, Ramses's honor, Sethos's deviousness and overcompensated inferiority complex, and Amelia's proper British manipulativeness all ring true and consistent through the novel and, indeed, through the series. THE GOLDEN ONE does not integrate World War I with the archeological elements of the story as well as some of the earlier novels in the series (perhaps because the Turks have been driven further from Egypt), but is otherwise a delightful adventure.
Readers new to this series may find Amelia's proper Britishisms somewhat off-putting but; for me at least, these have become familiar friends and amusing reminders of a time when the British really thought that they had a great moral lesson to share with the world. Peters certainly knows her Egypt and makes this great period of Archeology and Egyptology come to life.
Four Stars
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