It has been five years since Amelia Peabody’s last chronicled journey to Egypt. Emerson is teaching at the university and Amelia has been keeping herself occupied with their young son Walter, who does not resemble anyone in the world named Walter and is much more suited to the name Ramses, and so that is what they call him. He’s a precocious and intelligent little boy, having the best of traits from both parents, and just enough of the bad as well.
Lord Baskerville, patron of Egyptology and leader of an expedition near Luxor, has just passed away. The newspapers speculate that it was the curse of the pharaohs which ended his life, brought upon him by the desecration of the tombs. Beautiful and young Lady Baskerville badly wants to continue the excavation, and comes to see Emerson in the hope that he will take over where Lord Baskerville’s men left off. She does the unthinkable in Amelia’s eyes, by calling Emerson by his first name, Radcliffe, and being far too familiar with him in general. Amelia decides to come along and bring her umbrella, just in case.
The Emersons have no sooner set foot in Egypt before the press is all over them. One red-headed Irishman is more anxious than most to get his story, and keeps getting in the way. Madame Berengeria, clad in full Egyptian costume, is sure that she is a reincarnation of a princess and that Emerson was her husband in that former life. She will not leave him alone, to the eternal embarrassment of her daughter. Abdullah returns to work as Emerson’s foreman, and the missing Mr. Armadale is rumored to be a ghost.
Was Lord Baskerville’s death really murder? Can Amelia and Emerson get their work done despite all the distractions? Can Lady Baskerville keep from fainting long enough to utter a sensible sentence? How many shirts will Emerson ruin on this dig? Written in the best of old-fashioned wry prose, this novel continues the journey we began with “The Crocodile on the Sandbank” and delivers time and time again.
(This book was published by Dodd, Mead, and Company in 1981)