The Last Camel Died at Noon (Amelia Peabody, Book 6)

by Elizabeth Peters

Book Overview

It's true: the last camel is gone, leaving Amelia, Emerson and Ramses to bake under the desert sun in the winter of 1897. Armed with a mysterious note and map, they have been commissioned to locate a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446363383
• Release Date: October 1992
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 1.5" x 4.3"

Customer Reviews

My favorite!

This book is one of my favorites of Peter's for her Amelia Peabody series.

Enter Nefret...

In this engaging mystery Amelia Peabody Emerson, her husband Radcliffe, and their son "Ramses" journey once more to Egypt in search of artifacts and adventure, armed with a mysterious map and a commission from an English aristocrat to search for his long lost son and his wife. As in all Peabody mysteries, these goals intertwine with complexity and speed.Elizabeth Peters here gives a nod to the romantic adventure stories of the late nineteenth century (such as She, by Rider Haggard) when the Peabody-Emerson caravan begins to suffer from the mysterious deaths of their camels. When all looks dark and desperate, the group are rescued and whisked off to a fabulous Shangrila where the ancient rites of Egypt are still practiced. By the end the Emerson's have solved the mystery of the missing nobleman and his wife, have amassed quite a collection of artifacts for study, and Ramses is suffering from a bad case of puppy love for Nefret, who returns with them to England.This is the first story to feature Nefret, and fans of the later books will like to read how she enters the story. If you enjoyed Romancing the Stone (a similar tale with elements of late 19th century adventure) and have never tried the Amelia Peabody mysteries, this would be a great place to start!

The Best Before Seeing A Large Cat

Elizabeth Peters really outdoes herself with this novel, which continues the Amelia series and has all the hallmarks readers have come to expect--Ramses doing his best to bring about his own premature death, Amelia and Emerson enjoying their passionate relationship, excavations, facts about Ancient Egypt, suspense, intrigue, and of course, a dead body or two. The final chapter is a bit convoluted and the reader who devoured the novel may have to go back and re-read certain portions, but that's hardly a punishment. This is the best of the series that occurs while Ramses is still a child.Readers who enjoy this book might also enjoy Peters' books written under the nom de plume Barbara Michaels.

A wild jaunt through the desert with Amelia Peabody.

I collect the Amelia Peabody books faithfully. Often I don't read them at once, but wait for a few to accumulate and settle down for an enjoyable interlude with Peabody, her redoubtable husband Emerson, and their son, Ramses. I've had this book for quite some time (four more have been published since its release), and was only sorry that I'd waited to read it. Surely this is the best Peabody yet. The book is a send up of the Haggard novels, King Solomon's Mine and SHE, complete with erudite and noble natives, riots, wars, ancient mysteries, improbable situations and the incomparable Amelia and her belt with things that she's sure that she'll need, attached, including a revolver, sewing kit, knife, compass, and mini-surgery kit. Peabody's companions are her husband, Emerson, who has a meteoric temper but considers himself a mild fellow (the natives call him the Father of Curses) and their son, called Ramses (who inherited this name because his young profile resembled that great Pharoah, complete with 'rather largish features'). In this installment, they're off to search for a missing Englishman and his bride, who have been missing for 14 years. Their camels mysteriously die and it looks as though they will, too, but then, things really get interesting. Nothing compares with the humor in this series and although you may find yourself thinking that the language is a little too like a Bronte novel to suit you, you'll more regularly find that you've awakened your sleeping spouse, again, by laughing too hard. All of the main characters are admirable, certainly people you'd like to meet - that luncheon engagement would surely be riotous. Run out now, buy this book, and settle in for several hours of pure fun.

Amelia Peabody mystery/adventure set in ancient Thebes.

Amelia Peabody mystery and adventure. Having excavated in many of the important sites in Egypt, Amelia, Emerson, and Ramses, their precocious son, now hope to go where to archeologist has ever gone before: the ruins of the ancient city of Napata in the heart of the Sudan. However, a war prevents them from their desired location. They end up in the arid Nubian desert where fourteen years previously the explorer Willoughby Forth and his new bride had disappeared. Through a series of mysterious and coincidental events, they end up on a search for these unfortunate souls.On this journey, the gallant Emerson-Peabodys find themselves in the most dangerous and extraordinary predicament of their lives. One of Peters' best fast-paced, suspenceful, educational mysteries.