I wanted so much to love this book! Plot aside, there were just too many "glitches" in the characters' speech and personalities for me to get absorbed in the tale. As another reviewer stated, the male characters especially did not behave like those created by Elizabeth …more Peters. I do actually wonder if Joan Hess really read all the Peabody books...she should have avoided blatant mistakes such as writing that Katherine Vandergelt "had watched over Ramses since his birth". They meet when Ramses
is 16. Hess also writes that Daoud has "several wives". He has one wife, Khadijah. Hess refers to Emerson's "sluggish habits in the morning" when readers know he is always entreating other family members to get up very early to get started on their excavations.
None of this makes a difference to the plot, but Hess and the editors must know that fans are fussy! If a project like this is to be done, it should be done well for the sake of those of us who have loved Amelia and her entourage for so long. (less)