Sethos Returns
Elizabeth Peters:
The Ape Who Guards the Balance

Where Amelia Peabody Emerson goes, trouble follows. In The Ape Who Guards the Balance, the tenth book in Elizabeth Peters' much loved series, trouble -- and murder -- follows Amelia and her family from a suffragette rally in London to the tombs of Egypt.

An ardent supporter of women's rights, Amelia considers it her duty to join protesters at the London home of a key Parliamentary foe of votes for women. As a result, she's a witness when a daring gang uses the rally to cover their theft of the politician's collection of Egyptian antiquities. Amelia sees the fine hand of her old nemesis Sethos, the Master Criminal, in the affair.

So does Amelia's archaeologist husband, Radcliffe Emerson. The Emersons' suspicions appear to be confirmed when villains attempt to abduct Amelia. Partly to forestall further attacks and partly to remove his wife from the perilous attentions of the infatuated Sethos, Emerson persuades the family to set out early for their annual season of excavation in Egypt.

Amelia predicts a boring winter spent digging through the leftovers of other excavators in the Valley of the Kings. Although a peerless archaeologist with a many major "finds" to his credit, Emerson does not suffer the fools in Egypt's Department of Antiquities well. In turn, those officials find him insufferable and allow him to dig only in sites that show no promise at all.

But Fate -- or the gods of Egypt -- has other plans. The Emersons' terrifyingly brilliant son, Ramses, their ward Nefret and young friend David, have come of age and tumble into adventures of their own. In Cairo Ramses, Nefret and David purchase a valuable papyrus of The Book of the Dead.

The three soon discover someone else wants it too, someone who will go to any length, including murder, to secure it. Meanwhile, Amelia and Emerson discover the danger they thought they left behind in London stalks them still.

The Ape Who Guards the Balance provides readers all the action, adventure and humor they've come to expect from Elizabeth Peters. At the same time, Peters' subplots enrich readers' understanding of her characters and their times. The sidelined Emerson must watch a junior colleague struggle with an archaeological find and a patron the colleague is not equipped to handle. The arrival in Egypt of Emerson's brother Walter, Walter's wife and daughter sets off a family crisis that causes Amelia to question her own values and prejudices.

But while Amelia finally makes her decision, this reader's burning questions remained unanswered:

When will Ramses and Nefret finally admit they're madly in love?

Will Egyptian authorities ever grant Radcliffe a license for a decent dig?

Will the Emersons ever be rid of Sethos?

And of course, the most important question of all: when's the next book?

Theresa A. Miller

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