Elizabeth Peters

Fiction 1975/ 338 pages

It has been decades since I had my love affair with Elizabeth Peters, and read most everything she wrote about the strong, ebullient, outspoken, unconventional, before-her-time, feminist, brilliant Amelia Peabody.  Last week, I was at Larkspur, perusing the library a few days before we left for Cabo San Jose, in search of a paperback to toss into my carry-on, and found this, the first in her Amelia Peabody series.  Elizabeth Peters is the pen name for Egyptologist Barbara Mertz. The series takes place in Egypt, amidst ancient ruins, pyramids, and tombs.

Rereading Crocodile on the Sandbar was enjoyable and easy, though the story didn’t seem to engage me as much as my first time around.  There is a lot of context-setting in this novel, as we meet and discover our major characters, traveling with some of them down the Nile to an archaeologic dig.  The action picks up in the last quarter of the book, as a mummy attempts to injure, kill, and/or scare aware the mostly British archeologists.

A fun read, if you are looking for something adventurous, with some romance, and a bit of historical fiction.

April 2025