The Painted Queen

Amelia Peabody is back for one final adventure, and it is beyond fabulous!

When Amelia and her husband head back to Egypt, she is shocked when a man drops dead in her bathroom. Not knowing why this person was trying to kill her, she and Emerson head on to their dig site, while trying to solve the mystery.
While there, they encounter their usual round of suspects, Sethos is back but in a much different role, and the Father of Curses still knows how to command an audience...

I had to read this in one sitting, it was a fabulous book, and I absolutely loved it!

While this book was not finished by Elizabeth Peters, due to her death, Joan Hess did a great job in completing the manuscript, and doing her best to follow the writing style of Ms. Peters. While I could detect subtle instances in where they differed, it was an enjoyable read, and I am greatly going to miss the escapades of the Emerson family.

This book in one word? Lazy.

I feel a bit conflicted saying that, since apparently Joan Hess was sick and near the end of her life when she took on Elizabeth Peters's unfinished manuscript. So maybe it wasn't laziness that she suffered from, but illness and distraction.

But that doesn't change the way the book turned out: completely out of place in the series, in an unfamiliar voice, and full of seemingly careless errors. I could list them but others have already done so.

Truthfully, maybe someone else should have taken over this manuscript, someone who had the health and energy to truly give it what it deserved and who had the time to reread the series beforehand. I understand how difficult it must have been for Hess, and I sympathize, but it doesn't change the final product. Why the editor did not catch the mistakes or clean it up is anybody's guess.

When I reread this series (and I plan to), I will skip over this one, as it really doesn't feel like canon and shoves a wrench between two of the most emotionally fraught books in the series.

DNF PG 106

Why?

I might get around to finishing it sometime, but I doubt it. There was a plethora of issues, but the final straw that broke this camel's back was Amelia blithely stating “I shall have another session of hypnosis with him this afternoon.” about a man that she is, apparently, hypnotizing with a compass.

...

Other remarks to follow.

I'm in an interesting position with this book. You see, I am a fan of Elizabeth Peters work, have been since I was first introduced to The Last Camel Died at Noon from a used bookstore over 15 years ago. She is the only author of mystery books that has stayed a ‘must buy' for me through my transition into reading spec fiction. For many, many years I considered her my favorite author.

I also, many, many years ago (closer to 20 than 10) was a fan of Joan Hess' books. Hers, however, did not stand the test of time and now, looking back, I know that I wouldn't enjoy them.

This book...is exactly what I most feared: more Hess than Peters.

The characters are still here in name, but they are changed. Emerson and Amelia are caricatures of themselves. Egypt is still there in name but...what happened to the archeology?

I cannot imagine how daunting a task it must have been for Hess to finish this book even if she wasn't the close friend to Peters that her author note made obvious she was. However, Hess was a poor choice to finish the book. Sure, she traveled to Egypt with Peters (once?) but her books were all humorous contemporary mysteries and her writing in this book shows it.

After the events of the previous, chronological, book, to have the villains in here be more of a ... honestly? Horace and Jasper from 101 Dalmatians (so glad my mom's been watching those movies or I'd have nothing to compare them to) feels disrespectful. And like ‘ooh, look at me, I'm funny' which is something these books never were, instead just being dryly amusing. (And anyone else notice the overuse of parentheses?)