Book 1

Crocodile on the Sandbank

by Elizabeth Peters

Published 1 December 1975

Meet Egyptologist Amelia Peabody in the first mystery in the Victorian-era set, New York Times bestselling "sparkling series" (Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review).

"If Indiana Jones were female, a wife, and a mother who lived in Victorian times, he would be Amelia Peabody Emerson."--Publishers Weekly

Amelia Peabody, that indomitable product of the Victorian age, embarks on her debut Egyptian adventure armed with unshakable self-confidence, a journal to record her thoughts, and, of course, a sturdy umbrella. On her way to Cairo, Amelia rescues young Evelyn Barton-Forbes, who has been abandoned by her scoundrel lover. Together the two women sail up the Nile to an archeological site run by the Emerson brothers-the irascible but dashing Radcliffe and the amiable Walter. Soon their little party is increased by one-one mummy that is, and a singularly lively example of the species.

Strange visitations, suspicious accidents, and a botched kidnapping convince Amelia that there is a plot afoot to harm Evelyn. Now Amelia finds herself up against an unknown enemy-and perilous forces that threaten to make her first Egyptian trip also her last . . .

Praise for Elizabeth Peters and Crocodile on the Sandbank
"A writer so popular that the public library has to keep her books under lock and key." -Washington Post Book World

"Grand views of Egyptian antiquities . . . a sparkling series." -Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

 


Book 2

Curse of the Pharaohs

by Elizabeth Peters

Published 1 January 1981

Join our plucky Victorian Egyptologist , together with her devastatingly handsome and brilliant husband Radcliffe, in another exciting escapade

When Lady Baskerville's husband Sir Henry dies after discovering what may have been an undisturbed royal tomb in Luxor, she appeals to eminent archaeologist Radcliffe Emerson and his wife Amelia to take over the excavation. Amid rumours of a curse haunting all those involved with the dig, the intrepid couple proceeds to Egypt, where they begin to suspect that Sir Henry did not die a natural death, and they are confident that the accidents that plague the dig are caused by a sinister human element, not a pharoah's curse


Book 3

The Mummy Case

by Elizabeth Peters

Published 31 December 1985
The third in the popular series charting the adventures of Amelia Peabody, this novel follows the Victorian lady sleuth to the "pyramids" of Mazghunah. On her arrival, it seems that the barren area can be of no interest, but a murder in Cairo soon persuades her otherwise.

Book 4

Lion in the Valley

by Elizabeth Peters

Published 1 January 1986
The 1895-96 season promises to be an exceptional one for Amelia Peabody, her dashing Egyptologist husband, Emerson, and their wild and precocious eight-year-old son, Ramses. The much-coveted burial chamber of the Black Pyramid in Dahshur is theirs for the digging. But there is a great evil in the wind that roils the hot sands sweeping through the bustling streets and marketplaces of Cairo.

The brazen moonlight abduction of Ramses and an expedition subsequently cursed by misfortune and death have alerted Amelia to the likely presence of her arch nemesis, the Master Criminal, notorious looter of the living and the dead. But it is far more than ill-gotten riches that motivate the evil genius this time around. For now the most valuable and elusive prize of all is nearly in his grasp: the meddling lady archaeologist who has sworn to deliver him to justice...Amelia Peabody!

Book 5


Book 6

The Last Camel Died at Noon

by Elizabeth Peters

Published 28 November 1991
This time Amelia and her dashing husband Emerson set off for a promising archaeological site in the Sudan, only to be unwillingly drawn into the search for an African explorer and his young bride who went missing twelve years back. They survive the rigours of the desert, the death of their camels, and the perfidy of their guides, only to find themselves taken prisoner in a lost city and civilisation. Amelia and Emerson must bravely continue making archaeological finds while doing their best to rescue the innocent...and themselves.

Book 7

A brand-new Elizabeth Peters novel is one of the uncompromising pleasures in life. As Peter Theroux in the New York Times Book Review points out, "Her wonderfully witty voice and her penchant for history lessons of the Nile both ancient and modern keep [her] high adventure moving for even the highest brows." In her previous outing, The Last Camel Died at Noon, Amelia Peabody and her dashing husband, Emerson, discovered a fabulous lost oasis in the Nubian desert. Now, in the seventh mystery in the series, the Emerson-Peabodys are traveling up the Nile once again to encounter their most deadly adversary, the Master Criminal, who is back at his sinister best. Amelia Peabody was unabashedly proud of her newest translation, a fragment of the ancient fairytale "The Doomed Prince." Later, she would wonder why no sense of foreboding struck her as she retold the story of the king's favorite son who had been warned that he would die from the snake, the crocodile, or the dog. Little did she realize, as she and her beloved husband sailed blissfully toward the pyramids of ancient Egypt, that those very beasts (and a cat as well) would be part of a deadly plot. The expedition began so happily....Leaving their delightful, but catastrophically precocious, son, Ramses, back in England, Amelia hoped this romantic trip might rejuvenate her thirteen-year-old marriage and bring back the thrills that she feared were fading. She and her dear Emerson were returning to the remote desert site where they had first fallen in love, Amarna, the holy city of Akhenaton and his beautiful queen, Nefertiti. But their return would threaten not only their marriage, but their very lives with perils as chilling as a mummy'scurse. An old enemy was determined to learn Amelia and Emerson's most closely guarded secret: the location of a legendary long-lost oasis and a race of people bedecked in gold. So cunning was his scheme that Amelia might overlook - until it was too late - the truth about the myst

Book 8

The Hippopotamus Pool

by Elizabeth Peters

Published 1 April 1996
A masked stranger offers to reveal an Egyptian queen's lost tomb...and Amelia Peabody and her irascible archeologist husband, Radcliffe Emerson, are intrigued, to say the least. When the guide mysteriously disappears before he tells his secret, the husband-and-wife team sail to Thebes to follow his trail, helped-and hampered-by their teenage son, Ramses, and beautiful ward, Nefret. But before the sands of time shift very far, all will be risking their lives foiling murderers, kidnappers, grave robbers, and ancient curses. And the Hippopotamus Pool? It's a legend of war and wits that Amelia is translating, one that alerts her to a hippo of a different type-a nefarious, overweight art dealer who may become her next archenemy!

Book 9

Seeing a Large Cat

by Elizabeth Peters

Published 31 December 1997
No villain is safe in 1903 Egypt as feisty archaeologist Amelia Peabody embarks on her ninth adventure.

According to an ancient Egyptian papyrus, dreaming of a large cat means good luck. And that's just what Amelia Peabody could use, as her growing family matures in the new century. What's more, Amelia's dashing husband Emerson has received a mysterious warning not to enter the Valley of the Kings. To Emerson's annoyance, Amelia's meddling distracts her attention as she exposes a fraudulent spiritualist, saves a marriage, and plays matchmaker. But diabolical forces are at work when an unknown tomb reveals a shocking murder -- and the Peabody family dodges bullets from an assassin determined to put an end to their discoveries.


Book 10

Book ten in the Amelia Peabody murder mystery series The prospects for the 1907 archaeological season in Egypt seem fairly dull to Amelia. As a result of Emerson's less-than-diplomatic behaviour they have been demoted to examining only the most boring tombs in the Valley of the Kings - mere leftovers, really. And then, in a seedy section of Cairo, the younger members of the Peabody-Emerson clan purchase a mintcondition papyrus of the famed Book of the Dead, and so begins a new adventure into antiquity. Suddenly, the season for Amelia changes from dull to deadly as she has to untangle a web woven of criminals and cults, stolen treasures and fallen women - all the while under the unblinking eye of a ruthless, remorseless killer.

Book 11

Amelia Peabody and her family travel to Egypt for their annual dig. Her niece's Egyptian husband is accused of selling ancient artefacts that are actually exquisite fakes, and then the body of an American is found at the botton of the family's excavation shaft. It becomes clear that the land of the pharoahs harbours many secrets.

Book 12


Book 13

Lord of the Silent

by Elizabeth Peters

Published 1 January 2001
The ghosts of an ancient past and the specters of a present-day evil are buried beneath the Egyptian sands . . .

For archaeologist Amelia Peabody and her family, the allure of Egypt remains as powerful as ever, even in 1915, as a World War rages. But nowhere in this exotic land is safe—especially for Amelia's son Ramses and his beautiful new wife Nefret. Treachery and danger pursue the two young lovers across the desert nation, strengthening a bond of passion and devotion that only death can sever. And the grim discovery of a recent corpse in a tomb where it does not belong is pulling Amelia deeper into a storm of intrigue, corruption, kidnapping, and murder—and toward dark revelations that threaten to awaken the past . . . and alter the family's destiny.

Book 14

The Golden One

by Elizabeth Peters

Published 13 March 2002
Emerson is counting on a long season of excavation without distractions but this proves to be a forlorn hope. Yet again they unearth a dead body in a looted tomb - not a mummified one though, this one is only too fresh, and it leads the clan on a search for the man who has threatened then with death if they pursue the

Book 15

Children of the Storm

by Elizabeth Peters

Published 1 April 2003
Return once again with New York Times bestselling Grand Master Elizabeth Peters to a remarkable land of mystery, deception, and danger, where murderous intrigues swirl in the desert wind. . . .

The Great War has ended at last. No longer must archaeologist Amelia Peabody and her husband, Emerson, the distinguished Egyptologist, fear for the life of their daring son, Ramses, now free from his dangerous wartime obligations to British Intelligence. The advent of a season of joy and peace marks a time of new beginnings in Luxor, with delightful additions to the growing Emerson family and fascinating wonders waiting to be discovered beneath the shifting Egyptian sands.

But in the aftermath of conflict, evil still casts a cold shadow over this violence-scarred land. The theft of valuable antiquities from the home of a friend causes great concern in the Emerson household. Ramses's strange encounter with a woman costumed in the veil and gold crown of a goddess only deepens the mystery. And the brutal death of the suspected thief washes the unsettling affair in blood.

Amelia's investigation sets her on a terrifying collision course with an adversary more fiendish and formidable than any she has ever encountered. And in her zeal to make things right, the indomitable Amelia may be feeding the flames of a devastating firestorm that threatens the fragile lives of the tender and the innocent.

Book 16

Guardian of the Horizon

by Elizabeth Peters

Published 30 March 2004

A hitherto lost journal of the indomitable Amelia Peabody has been miraculously recovered: a chronicle from one of the "missing years" -- 1907-1908 -- shedding new light on an already exceptional career, a remarkable family . . . and an unexpected terror.

Ousted from their most recent archaeological dig and banned forever from the Valley of the Kings, the Emersons are spending a quiet summer at home in Kent, England, when a mysterious messenger arrives. Claiming to be the teenage brother of their dear friend Tarek, prince of the mysterious Lost Oasis, the charismatic herald brings troubling news of a strange malady that has struck down Tarek's heir and conveys his brother's urgent need for help only the Emersons can provide.

Driven by loyalty -- and a fear that the evil forces opposing Tarek's rule will now exploit the royal heir's grave illness -- the family sets off in secret for the land time forgot -- a mountain fortress from which they narrowly escaped ten years before. Braving the treacherous desert climate on a trek fraught with danger at every turning, guided only by a crumbling map, the Emersons are unaware that deception is leading them onward into a nest of vipers -- where a dreadful fate may await. For young Ramses, forced to keep his growing love for the beautiful Nefret secret, temptation along the way may prove his ultimate undoing. And a dark past and grim obligation have ensnared Nefret once again, as she is helpless to save those she loves most from the prison of the Lost Oasis.

Guardian of the Horizon is rich with suspense, surprises, unforgettable characters, and the intoxicating atmosphere that has earned its author the coveted title of Grand Master two times over. The remarkable Elizabeth Peters proves once again that, in the world of historical adventure fiction, she is truly without peer.


Book 17

Serpent on the Crown

by Elizabeth Peters

Published 29 March 2005

Autumn 1921. The Peabody-Emerson clan are enjoying a fruitful period of excavation in Egypt. But when they hear the alarming tale of a man's mysterious death their digging turns to detecting. His widow is convinced her husband was the victim of a curse and implores the Emersons to find and return the small 'deadly' statue that killed him to the tomb from which it was stolen -- before it claims another life. From bitter experience the Emersons know it would be a serious mistake to start chasing tomb robbers. But Amelia and family soon start to find the curse may be more real than ever imagined...


Book 18

Tomb of the Golden Bird

by Elizabeth Peters

Published 28 March 2006

The chase is on - and Amelia Peabody and Co. are in the thick of it!
1922 - convinced that the tomb of the little-known King Tutankhamon lies somewhere in the Valley of the Kings, Emerson has tried to persuade his rivals Lord Carnavon and Howard Carter to hand over their digging rights in the valley to him - but they resist. So back in Luxor an incident at the hotel the clan is staying in turns their gifts for digging in another direction. Emerson and Ramses are lured into a trap by a group of villains who demand answers to the mysterious question, 'Where is he?'. Their curiosity piqued, the duo is determined to uncover who 'he' is and why 'he' should be so important.


Book 19

A River in the Sky

by Elizabeth Peters

Published 6 April 2010

1910. Having brought Egypt firmly under her thumb, Amelia Peabody turns her attention to a harder challenge: Palestine, a province of the crumbling, corrupt Ottoman Empire and the Holy Land of three religions.

Hearing that Morley, an English adventurer, has raised money to mount an expedition to search for the vanished treasures of the Temple in Jerusalem, Emerson and Amelia are persuaded to go after him in order to prevent a catastrophically inept excavation and the possibility of armed protest by the infuriated members of all three religions who view the Dome of the Rock as sacred. The War Office is concerned about increasing German influence in Palestine and insists that Morley is secretly working for German intelligence. Emerson doesn't believe it, but could he be mistaken?

In the meantime, their son Ramses has been working on a dig at Samaria, north of Jerusalem, where he encounters an unusual party of travellers. One is a female German archaeologist, and the other a mysterious man of unknown nationality and unknown past. Ramses's insatiable curiosity leads him to a startling discovery about the pair. He must now pass the information on to his parents in Jerusalem - but only if he can get there alive...


Praise for the Amelia Peabody series:

'I can't wait for the next Peabody story... I really do think [Elizabeth Peters'] books are great entertainment.' Angela Rippon

'A writer so popular that the public library has to keep her books under lock and key.' Washington Post Book World

'The most potent female force to hit Egypt since Cleopatra.' Philadelphia Enquirer

'Think Miss Marple with early feminist gloss crossed with Indiana Jones... accomplished entertainment' Guardian


Book 20

The Painted Queen

by Elizabeth Peters and Joan Hess

Published 25 July 2017

Egypt, 1912. Amelia Peabody and her dashing archaeologist husband, Radcliffe Emerson, are once again in danger as they search for a priceless, stolen bust of legendary Queen Nefertiti...

Arriving in Cairo for another thrilling excavation season, Amelia is relaxing in her elegant hotel suite when a man with knife protruding from his back staggers into her chamber and utters a single word -'Murder' - before collapsing on the floor, dead. It soon becomes apparent that someone has saved Amelia from a would-be assassin-someone who is keeping a careful eye on the intrepid archaeologist. And there can be only one answer: the brilliant master of disguise, Sethos.

For Amelia, this excavation season will prove to be unforgettable; one where a brilliant criminal will offer his final challenge . . . and perhaps be unmasked at last.

'Think Miss Marple with early feminist gloss crossed with Indiana Jones' The Guardian