Seeing a Large Cat

by Elizabeth Peters

Book Overview

It's 1903 in Cairo, and Amelia dreams of a large Egyptian cat, a sign of good luck. But the luck turns when she and Emerson, who are set to dig in the Valley of the Kings, receive an ominous warning:... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446518344
• ISBN13: 9780446518345
• Release Date: July 1997
• Publisher: Warner Books (NY)
• Length: 386 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Such great fun these books are!

This series is a total delight, and this book is certainly one of my personal favourites. In the book we actually have two parallel stories running - that of Amelia and Emerson, and their search to solve the mystery of the mysterious mummy that they have found, and the young people - Ramses, David and Nefret doing their own thing to solve that same mystery. What makes the story so very funny is that Amelia is not at all aware of what "the children" are doing. That is one of the funniest things in the book - her insistence on calling the three young people children. She has no idea what dangerous games they are up to. Emerson guesses, but he keeps his thoughts to himself. Ramses is turning into quite a character. In this book he is sixteen years of age, but his immense intelligence, his skill at disguise and his knowledge of many languages make him a formidable opponent. I really can't wait to see what this group of five people get up to next! Ms. Peters tells a wonderful story, but it's her characterizations that are so remarkable.

Full of Fun

After reading some of the reviews for this book I am inclined to ask if they got it. This series has never been about hardcore mystery so much as mystery-lite with tons of characterization. I highly recommend that you not start out with this book. Go to "Crocodile on the Sandbank." That being said, I adored this book! It was so sun to see Ramses taking matters into his own hands. As usual, there was much to learn about Egyptology, and the speech Ramses gives to David describing Emerson's feelings for Amelia (and his for Nefret) were worth the price of admission!!

A Great Campfire or Beach Read

I took Seeing a Large Cat along on a week long camping adventure with my Cub Scout son and his pack. Each night I dragged my rain soaked copy into the cot in my Army tent and lost myself, via flashlight, in the Emerson family's adventures. By introducing the intriguing device of the H Manuscript Ms. Peters allows us to see what is going on in the minds of Ramses, Nefret, and David while keeping this knowledge from Amelia, who sometimes credits herself with more insight than she should. We see too that Ramses is not as self-contained and unflappable as he seems, and that he is outright helpless when it comes to his affection for Nefret. Although the pool of suspects is quite small in this book, Ms. Peters does succeed in a surprising plot twist. In addition, she has introduced a new and interesting character in Mrs. Whitney-Jones. The characters' occasional references to the casual racism and (mistaken) assumption of superiority in the Western community in Egypt serve as useful reminders of the pain of such thinking, especially when we see the treatment of David, a kind and gifted youth, as literally not worthy of notice.

One of Peter's best writing to date.

A a loyal fan of Amelia Peabody Emerson (and fellow student of Egyptology) I have followed Elizabeth Peters' (a.k.a. Dr. Barbara Mertz), novels and am happy to say that this is one of her best. Amelia is with dignity, handing over much of the narrative to her troublesome yet endearing son, Ramses, while preparing the reader for further development of his and other key characters. Her dialogue is less explanitory than usual, and quite witty and relaxed. My only complaint is her treatment of the native Arab population as overly superstitious as exemplified by a scene where a male servant cowers behind a counter due to the presence of a cat that neither scratches nor bites. Furthermore, I think that the incantations of Ramses and Nefret (usually it is Emerson), in front of the tomb about to be explored (for the purpose of convincing the locals that all evil spirits have been exorcised), is getting a bit tiresome. Most of the time Ms. Peters goes out of her way to treat that culture fairly considering the time period for which she has chosen to portray her novels, but this is a bit much. Anyway, the book left me wishing that another one was already published and on the shelves!

Great author!

Elizabeth Peters is an excellent author once again. If you love an old fashioned mystery this is for you. And I recommend reading all of her other books too.