Now that World War I is over the Emerson family is reuniting in Egypt. Walter and Evelyn along with their daughter Lia, her husband David, and their two grandchildren are coming to Luxor to join Amelia and Emerson, their son Ramses, daughter-in-law Nefret and twin grandchildren Davie and Charla. It makes for a crowded couple of houses especially when Sethos and his daughter Molly are added to the bunch.

The crimes this time include the theft of some of the jewelry found in the princesses' tomb and the assumed theft of the treasures by the man hired to restore the jewelry who has disappeared. Then Ramses is kidnapped by a figure calling herself Hathor and there are various "accidents" happening to the Emersons and their colleagues. The most serious is a car accident that almost takes Selim's life.

There are so many events of a suspicious nature that Amelia is quite confused about the purpose and perpetrator of all of the chaos. Amelia's persistence and help from various members of her family do manage to solve the thing. But not before Nefret and Emerson are kidnapped by the villains and a daring rescue needs to be mounted.

This was another excellent episode in the long-running Amelia Peabody series. ( )

The encrimsoned sun sank slowly toward the crest of the Theban mountains. Another glorious Egyptian sunset burned against the horizon like fire in the heavens. In fact, I did not at that moment behold it, since I was facing east. I had seen hundreds of sunsets, however, and my excellent imagination supplied a suitable mental picture. As the sky over Luxor darkened, the shadows of the bars covering doors and windows lengthened and blurred, lying like a tiger's stripes across the two forms squatting on the floor. One of them said, "Spoceeva."
"Russian," Ramses muttered, scribbling on his notepad. " Yesterday it was Amharic. The day before it sounded like--"
"Gibberish, " said his wife.
"No," Ramses insisted, " It has to mean something. They use root words from a dozen languages, and they obviously understand one another. See? He's nodding. They are standing up. They are going... " His voice rose. "Leave the cat alone!"

La tormenta de la Gran Guerra ha pasado, y la arqueóloga egipcia Amelia Peabody debe conectar los hilos de misteriosos accidentes que casi matan a sus amigos. El restaurados Martinelli desaparece la misma noche que unas valiosas joyas del tesoro de una princesa, que debe ser embalado para un barco de vapor al museo nacional. Los hijos y nietos de Copius ayudan y obstaculizan, incluido el medio hermano reformado archicriminal Sethos y su hija ilegítima Molly.

I felt like I was being pulled a million directions with all the old characters and the new ones. Thus my interest and affection for the characters was minimized somewhat. Not that Peters has lost her sense of humor, or her cleverness. It's still there. But it would help to simplify things a bit. Maybe separate the family and have 2 mysteries going on rather than try and remember every little detail. The "additions" to the family circle are endearing and the character growth is believable.

Last pet peeve: Remember how in the earlier books there would be a side-plot romance? Bring it back. It brought an opportunity for lighter, less emotionally-clogged moments and amazingly brilliant characters. I miss Kevin and other stand-by characters that made the other books crackle with wit, humor, action, and (occasionally) good-humored annoyance. ( )

https://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2021/09/2021105-children-of-storm-elizabeth.html ( )