The Curse of The Pharaohs

The Amelia Peabody Series, Book 2

By: Elizabeth Peters

Narrated by: Susan O'Malley

Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

The joys of home and hearth are about to drive Victorian gentlewoman Amelia Peabody Emerson mad. While she and her husband, the renowned archaeologist Radcliffe Emerson, dutifully go about raising their son Ramses, she dreams only of the dust and detritus of ancient civilizations. Providentially, a damsel in distress - coupled with a promising archaeological site - demands their immediate presence in Egypt. The damsel is Lady Baskerville, and the site is a tomb in Luxor recently discovered by Sir Henry Baskerville - who promptly died under bizarre circumstances. The tabloids immediately scream "The Curse of the Pharaohs!"

Amelia and Radcliffe arrive to find the camp in disarray, the workers terrified, and a most eccentric group of guests. A ghost even appears.

This is not at all what Amelia considers an atmosphere conductive to scientific discovery. Never one to deny others the benefit of her advice and example, the indomitable Victorian sets about bringing order to chaos and herself that much closer to danger. How Amelia triumphs over the forces of evil - and those who would stand between her and her beloved antiquities - make for a delightfully spirited adventure.

Don't miss the rest of the Amelia Peabody series.

©1981 Elizabeth Peters (P)1999 Blackstone Audiobooks

A vote FOR this narrator

Unlike some of the other reviewers, I quite enjoyed Ms. O'Malley's narration. She deftly managed voices for different accents and genders. Amelia and Radcliffe were delightfullty delivered. The voicing of the remaining characters ranged from inspired to perfectly adequate. Oh and the book was good too.

Better than the first one

Okay, the narrator stinks but the story was so much more cohesive. The first books plot was unravelled halfway through. This one was enchaning and gripping. Not the best book ever but pretty darn good!

Another twisted mystery set amid Eqypt

Love these volumes due to good character development, history, humor, and a peek at live in the 1920s

good read

A good read. Looking forward to reading the next book in the series soon

Silly But Fun

Light reading with occasional chuckles! As much for its bad science as it’s humor. Plot twists add to the enjoyment!

Definitely worth having Rosenblatt narrate, and increase speed

Barbara Rosenblatt makes the Amelia Peabody series worth listening. For those who say Rosenblatt is too slow, you can adjust the rate of narration in the app and it is PERFECT. I listen at 1.2xor 1.3x. Far better than the O’Malley narration. I find a lot of British novels have to be sped up to at least 1.1x, to coincide with American speech patterns.

Not one of Peters' best

I agree that this book is a rather stilted follow-up to Crocodile on the Sandbank, but it does introduce some characters who become important in later books so is probably worth a listen. The narrator is not as wonderful as Rosenblatt, but not quite as awful as some of the reviews suggest.

Very good mystery

I couldn't stop listening to this book. I thought the mystery was fabulous as was the murder weapon. I didn't see who was actually the murderer until the unmasking at the end. I love the characters of Amelia and Emerson. The narrator was good as well although I did miss the british acccent that Barbara Rosenblat does, I thought that Susan O'Malley was very smooth and a great reader.

Mediocre

Less extraneous detail about the teller/main character and their distracting interjections into the story and more focus the story line would have made this a better listen.

Fun listen

This is just a fun listen with great banter between the main characters. Second book in the series.