Amelia Peabody and her husband Radcliff Emerson, eminent Egyptian archaeologists have returned to Cairo, in the first year of the First World War, despite the dangers the war poses to them. Egypt is in the hands of the British but the Egytians are growing increasingly restive against the British occupation. The Emersons can hardly remain separate from the emotions and situations created by the war, although their greatest wish is simply to do their archaeology work. Their own son seems to have taken a pacifist postion against involvment in the war, which does not help matters. They face pressures from many sides and in many forms. They cannot avoid these pressures so, being the Emersons, they plunge right in...

I love these characters! This series begins with Amelia and Emerson meeting for the first time. You get to watch the birth and development of their precocious son 'Ramses', the adoption of a daughter and the trials and loves and travails of many other friends and family members of theirs, all in an interesting setting. In this book alone all the characters seem to be on the edge of or in the middle of danger for the entire book. They all have a never give up or give in attitude as well.

There is a bit of violence now and then and the characters are anti-christian, anti-religious period, but the characters and writing are wonderful

Read another and tell someone about them all.

Good and sad. Good because of what happen with Ramses and Nefret. But sad as well because of what happens to some of the other characters.

Is very good. She is an America and has a Ph.D. in Egyptology. She is a great writer. Her characters are wonderful. You wish you knew them personnally. She manages to make archaeology and 1914 British occupied

Egypt seem colorful, alive and exciting.

The writing is excellent. The characters are engaging, intelligent and fun. The setting is interesting and colorful due to the authors fine writing ability. There is a good blend of action and use of intellectual deduction.

There is some violence and murder. There is also some mention of drugs, prostitution and abuse and allusion to transvestitism and homosexuality. Also, these books are written fairly true to the time and are not necessarily politically correct.

This book and the others in the series are highly recommended and a must read if you like action and detective ficton. Even the archaeology parts are interesting and informative. I have learned quite a bit about early Egypt simply by listening to Amelia and Emerson and their many friends, family and aquaintances. This is an excellent book and an excellent series. It is written for the most part in first person, and is written as if taken from manuscripts written by Amelia herself, and later by Ramses and Nefret as well.



The first book of the series is The Crocodile On The Sandbank.

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of He Shall Thunder In The Sky: An Amelia Peabody Mystery   from Amazon.Com!

Created Nov 28, 2002 at 12:14am • Submit your own review...