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Join Amelia Peabody on her thrilling new expedition to the Valley of the Kings --

Your Itinerary: Upper Egypt, 1907. A perilous adventure into antiquity with fiction's most beloved archaeologist and her captivating cohorts.

Witness exotic scenery, craven tomb robbers, vengeful gods!

Discover stolen treasures, a mysterious cult, surprising secrets hidden in desert sands!

Find the unexpected -- a ruthless, remorseless killer with his eye on Amelia!

The prospects for the 1907 archaeological season in Egypt seem fairly dull to Amelia Peabody. Despite her adored husband's brilliant reputation in his field, his dashing-yet-less-than-diplomatic behavior has Professor Radcliffe Emerson ignominiously demoted to examining only the most boring tombs in the Valley of the Kings -- mere leftovers, really. All the Peabody Emersons profess stiff upper lips and intend to make the best of a bad situation, but this year the legendary land of the pharoahs will yield more than priceless artifacts for the Emerson expedition. For the desert guards even deeper mysteries that are wrapped in greed -- and sealed by murder.

In a seedy section of Cairo, the youngest members of the expedition purchase a mint-condition papyrus of the famed Book of the Dead, the collection of magical spells and prayers designed to ward off the perils of the underworld and lead the deceased into everlasting life. But for as long as there have been graves, there have also been grave robbers -- as well as those who believe tomb violators risk the wrath of gods like Thoth, the little baboon who protects the scales used to weigh such precious commodities as hearts and souls.

Besides facing the ire of ancient deities, their adventure into antiquity also puts Amelia and company in the sights of Sethos, the charismatically compelling but elusive Master Criminal whose bold villainies have defied the authorities in several countries. In truth, Amelia needn't have worried: this season is about to turn from dull to deadly. Soon, she will need all her remarkable skills of detection and deduction to untangle a web woven of criminals and cults, stolen treasures and fallen women -- all the while under the unblinking eye of a ruthless, remorseless killer.

Reviews
Amelia remains an irrepressible delight.
--The New York Times Book Review, Marilyn Stasio

"So much local color that I felt as though I were on vacation!"
--The Los Angeles Times

"Amelia is Indiana Jones, Sherlock Holmes, and Miss Marple all rolled into one."
--The Washington Post

"A new Amelia Peabody mystery is like visiting old friends."
--USA Today

"Amelia is one of the most interesting and delightful characters in the mystery genre."
--St. Paul Minnesota Pioneer Press

"Tony Hillerman's and Elizabeth Peters' mysteries are like comfort food -- they always satisfy . . . Peters' witty writing and her cast of outrageous characters move the story along at a brisk pace."
--San Francisco Examiner

September 1998
hardcover, 376 pages
ISBN: 0380976579

May 1999
paperback, 400 pages
$7.50 US
ISBN: 0380798565