Seeing a Large Cat: The Amelia Peabody Series, Book 9

After the disaster that was The Hippopotamus Pool, Seeing a Large Cat is a refreshing return to the novels of old. Back is the fun dialogue, the satiric eye-wink of a mystery, and wonderful banter between Emerson and Amelia. With this book, Peters has pushed the children into their middle to late teens, which provides for new an interesting voices to combat the bombastic Emerson and the lovingly know-it-all Amelia. The addition of David, the only good thing to come out of The Hippopotamus Pool, provides a refreshing new voice to the series and loving foil to Ramses and Nefret. Also new to this book is the addition of "Manuscript H," which provides a fictionalized voice to the adventures of Ramses, Nefret, and David. While I liked the addition of a new voice that allows for a perspective different from Amelia Peabody's, I found the way Peters chose to insert them into the novel annoying. I would rather have had her break the Manuscript H sections into seperate chapters, but she's the writer, not me. Overall, this was a nice return to the Amelia Peabody mysteries of old, but with new voices, new characters, the return of old favorites, and a much more dramtic turn than we've seen before. As usual, the vocal stylings of Barbara Rosenblatt are spot on. Her over-the-top vocalizations bring a wry humor to the already fun story.

Elizabeth Peters can always be depended on to write an entertaining tongue in cheek adventure, containing mysteries, at least one murder, danger and wry commentary on the social mores of the day. In this 9th book in the Amelia Peabody series, she delivers one of her best!

The year is 1903. In the 3 years since the previous book, the Emersons' son, Ramses, and their adopted daughter, Nefret, have aged and grown. Ramses is 16 and is 6 feet tall, Nefret is 19 and has begun to take classes at a London medical school for women. Ramses and his friend David Todros have spent the summer with a sheik and his tribe and are consequently much more mature than the previous year.

The plot involves a search for the alleged murderer of a woman, led by the actual murderer; discovery of a tomb below the floor of the Valley of the Kings; a collapse of the tomb roof trapping Amelia; the saving of Amelia by Ramses; freeing an old friend from powerful delusions about an Egyptian princess; and Vandergelt's infatuation with and engagement to an Englishwoman involved in the princess delusions matter. Much of the last half of the tale creates a good deal of suspense and laughter.

I continue to be amazed by the astounding talents of narrator Barbara Rosenblat. She is, without doubt, the most versatile narrator I have encountered on Audible. The Amelia Peabody stories require not only a wide range of accents in both male and female voices. They require, and Rosenblat delivers superbly, the voice of one character, Ramses, aging from 4 and 5 to 8, 10, 13, and now 16, while remaining clearly recognizable as the same character. A real tour-de-force!

One of the best of this series.

Seeing a Large Cat has now become my favorite of all the Amelia Peabody series books. It even got 5 stars from me, which is not something I do very often.

The story was exceptionally good and I am in love with the grown up Ramses. I did not find him whinny or annoying (as another reviewer noted). I found him sexy and intriguing. I am very pleased with the grown up Ramses voice - I can't say the same for David's voice. In my opinion his voice should have been more British in light of his adoption by the Walter Emersons and subsequent British education.

The Emerson family is back in Luxor - and they have built a house nearby. They still have their boat (the Amelia). David and Ramses are staying in the boat and Amelia, Emerson and Nefret are staying at the house. There are visits (known and unknown) between the two locations. Cyrus is discovering a love interest and we find that Ramses has a love interest too. The mysteries in the story are quite perplexing and the entire family and crew are involved in solving them. Ramses female cat (I can't spell her name) from previous books has died, and Ramses is quietly and silently grieving over her death - they had a special bond. Nefret wants to ease his grief by trying to get him to pay attention to one of the deceased cat's kittens, but Ramses isn't consoled at all by the new kitten.

The book includes a character named Dolly, a Southern Belle from America whom I itched to slap. She has eyes for Ramses. She is so hateful and spiteful that she may come back in future books. Dolly is the type you love to hate and she is the polar opposite of Nefret. Needless to say, Nefret can't stand her either.

Unlike another reviewer, I absolute love the insertions of Manuscript H. I think they make perfect sense where they are placed and help move the story along. Also, the Manuscript H sections are apparently written by Ramses but he writes them as if they are a fiction story. They are really helpful to tell what is happening out of Amerlia's sight and provide a viewpoint other than Amelia's about events and people (including Amelia). I think they add spice to the series and keep the books from becoming monotmous, which they will do if we only hear Amelia talking all the way through every book. I love Amelia, but she can get a little stuck on herself sometimes.

This series is a favorite. The history is reliable, the style is authentic, and the plots are engaging. The the characters are likable and amusing; their development and their changing relationships pique interest in the ongoing saga.
A great plus in the audio versions is the amazing Barbara Rosenblat, who gives each character a distinctive and convincing voice.

Yes, the books in this series are all quite formulaic, as is the case with mystery series in general. And yes, they all run together enough in my mind that I would have a hard time saying anything unique about any one of them. But I ADORE them. I keep coming back for more because Peters just does SUCH a great job with them, and Barbara Rosenblat is OUTSTANDING at bringing them to life.

I would never have guessed that I would be interested in books set in Egypt and about a bunch of Egyptologists. For that reason I resisted beginning this series for a long time, although my sister was sure I would love them. She finally brought the first one on a long road trip we took together and I was immediately hooked. The Egypt aspect is now one of the things I like most about the series - I have learned so much from these books! (I have listened to them all - not read them in print, but I sometimes wish I had the print version available to see how some of the words are spelled.)

The plots are well-done - yes, a little formulaic, but still keep you guessing about who the villain is until the very end, and with enough twists and turns in the action to keep things interesting.

But by far the crowning achievement of the series is the characters - especially those of Amelia, her husband Emerson, and their son "Ramses". These are three of the best characters in all of fiction, absolutely delightful in their various idiosyncrasies and the relationships between them. Much of their dialog is laugh-out-loud funny and wonderfully quotable. I don't know whether or not I would have been as enthusiastic if I had first encountered them in print, rather than in audio format read by Rosenblat. She is simply astounding in her ability to portray countlesss characters of different genders, ages, nationalities, and personalities. And she does a SUPERB job with all three of the Emersons (as well as ALL the other characters).

It's amazing that Elizabeth Peters can keep the stories coming for so long, and the characters fresh and continually appealing through so many different books, but for me, it's still working on this, the ninth installment. I think I will never tire of listening to these books.

The BEST!!

The characters are so much fun. I laughed out loud at Amelia more than once.

I like to listen to the audio version because it is like listening to a play. I don't have a lot of time to sit and read a book. I can listen to the book while I do other things.

The mixture of history, comedy and mystery.

She is an excellent narrator. I like the way that gives a different voice to each character. She does well with many different accents.

Follow the exploits of the Peabody/Emerson family in the mystery and majesty of 19 and early 20th century Egypt.

I have enjoyed listening to the entire series.

The story was a little slow but it was somewhat interesting in the beginning and it got better as it went along.

Barbara Rosenblat does a great job reading this book and used different voices for the characters.

This book is 9th in a series of amusing and interesting tales made addictive and outstanding by the narrator. Ms. Rosenblat has developed voices for the characters that are instantly recognizable and incredibly varied. I hear Emerson's 'Bah!' in my head when I'd like to say the word myself in conversation.

If you think ' how can the story hold up after 9 books?' think about how relationships change, how children become adults, how wars shape the world, how archeological finds kept happening all the time in the period of time these books take place, and you'll understand why the story doesn't go stale.

The characters are far more entertaining that the mystery in this story, but I recommend it highly, nonetheless.

A delightful diversion between other books from other authors.

The relationship between the Professor and Mrs. Emerson.
The adventures of the young people, kept secret from their elders.

It's wonderful, as always.
"The Last Camel Died At Noon" was performed by someone else, and the performance was such a disappointment compared to Barbara Rosenblat's.

Amelia Peabody Emerson, as always. The main reason, I guess, is that she is the Narrator of the story. Also, her use of the English language is sophisticated and humorous.

It's fun to look forward to the next book in the series, especially to learn how Ramses has grown and what he's up to.