LION IN THE VALLEY
by Elizabeth Peters
Feisty, way ahead of her Victorian time, Amelia Peabody, with brilliant, short-tempered Egyptologist-husband, Radcliffe Emerson, and their "abominably loquacious" eight-year-old son, Ramses, are digging in Egypt again (The Mummy Case, 1895)—this time at Dahshoor. Drawn into the hunt for the murderer of old foe "Prince" Kalenischeff by the appearance at their camp of chief suspect Enid Debenham, seeking refuge, Amelia recognizes the hand of Sethos—master criminal, man of a thousand disguises, and head of worldwide clandestine dealings in antiquities. Meanwhile, camp recruit Donald Fraser, hired to rein in the formidable Ramses, turns out to be Enid's longtime love, now in the process of destroying his life to save brother Ronald's good name—a noble aim turned useless when Ronald's body turns up on Amelia's desert doorstep. All this leads back to Cairo, Amelia's capture by the masterful Sethos, and her bemused, intrigued reactions on realizing that she is the madly desired object of the supercriminal's machinations. Loaded with wit, irony, Egyptian lore, Victorian mores, good-humored flamboyance and solid entertainment.