Guardian of the Horizon
This is the sixteenth installment in the ever-entertaining Amelia Peabody mystery series. It does not fall short of expectations either. It is an utter delight.
The “lost” journals of the Emersons’ 1907-1908 dig season have been found. We are transported back to the Lost Oasis and Holy Mountain chronicled in The Last Camel Died at Noon. This was where Nefret was the High Priestess before she was recovered by the Emersons, and brought back to England to live the life of a refined English lady.
While the Emersons attempt to plan where they will dig during that fateful season, they are visited by a stranger whose words strike them to the core. Their friend, Tarek, the King of the Lost Oasis, has written asking for their help. They must return to a place from which they barely escaped with their lives ten years before. Ramses, who wants desperately to flee his love for the unattainable Nefret, is stuck. He has to go to the aid of his friend, Tarek.
Naturally, Tarek hasn’t called the Emersons to assist him – rather, it is the new king who has deposed Tarek and who has called the Father of Curses and Sitt Hakim to his side to cement his rule over the people. What transpires is that well-beloved series of ups and downs which crowd the pages of Peters’ Amelia Peabody mysteries. The dialogue is tongue-in-cheek, the attraction between Amelia and Emerson is tasty, and the torment of Ramses is painful. Everything is resolved at the end – well, almost everything! What fun reading!
