Barbara Michaels (1927–2013)

This is the thirteenth book in the Amelia Peabody series. It's nearly Christmas 1915 and the Emersons are in Egypt. Ramses, who has refused to do more work for British intelligence, is newly married. When one of the men from his earlier work attempts to murder him, he and Nefret are sent to Luxor to check out thefts of antiquities and, hopefully, get him out of danger while Amelia and Emerson try to find out who wants Ramses dead.

But Luxor is no safer for Ramses and Nefret. Rumors of the reappearance of the Master Criminal and further attempts on Ramses' life along with persistent rumors of a marvelous new find all keep Nefret and Ramses busy.

Despite their vows to each other, both sets of Emersons are keeping secrets from the other and each are convinced that this is keeping the other pair safe. For example, the younger Emersons are aware that the Master Criminal who supposedly died in Amelia's arms after a heroic action is actually still alive and rebuilding his criminal enterprise in Luxor.

It isn't until both sets of Emersons reunite in Luxor that the mysteries are solved.

I enjoyed this episode which seems weighted to the younger Emersons' viewpoint and provided a lot of action including the Master Criminal. I am becoming quite a fan of the Master Criminal. The plot was twisty as is the case when the subject matter includes spies and thieves and political activities.… (més)

With memories of having enjoyed a novel by this author many moons ago, though unable to remember which, I anticipated a good page turning read. In one sense, that is what it is. Heather Tradescant is on a touring holiday of England following the death of her father (and mother, but her father was her real parent for various reasons) with whom she had anticipated visiting famous gardens. Both shared a love of gardening and, to some extent, the history of gardens, mainly centred around the two John Tradescants who lived in the seventeenth century (and from whom, her father believed, they descended).

Denied access to a major goal, Troytan House, which had a garden which John Tradescant (the Elder I think) had designed, Heather finds her own way in, which turns out to lie through an overgrown maze. While there, she has a panic attack and so reels to the feet of Jordan Karim, son of the house's owner, rather bedraggled, scratched and with a twisted ankle. When Franklin Karim, Jordan's father, learns her name (and has it checked up by his factotum Sean to make sure she isn't a lying reporter), he invites her to stay and help him find where the garden that Tradescant designed used to be. Frank, as he prefers to be called, is a rich man and generally gets his own way with a manner part charm and part bullying. He is very insulting to his son, and eventually the reason for his behaviour is disclosed.

One element which intrigued me was the references to the famous seventeenth century Pendle Witch Trial and the various victims of the beliefs of that day. There is an attempt to tie it in with modern day (the book was published in 1997) Wicca and other New Age beliefs, and one character, Jennet, has a major role in this, but it isn't really followed through and I did wonder why any of this was in the book at all.

A lot of the story centres around Helen's relationships with the various men at the house - not only Frank, Jordan and Sean, but also Giles, son of the former owner and terribly, terribly nice but terribly put upon by a selfish wife and awful bratty son. There is a hint of romance between her and Giles and her and Sean, although Jordan keeps her at arm's length with his distant attitude which descends at times into hostility. Meanwhile, I appreciated that Helen is a tough cookie, physically fit - she does quite a lot of climbing ladders etc - and brave, and also quite blunt, plus she is constantly lectured or teased about her weight and the amount of food she puts away. So not a simpering violet. In the course of the story it becomes clear that someone is trying to do her harm, and suspicion falls mainly upon Jennet and the housekeeper Doreen.

One point I liked in the novel was that, unlike a lot of books with a romance theme, there were no steamy bedroom scenes. The only scenes set in the bedroom were completely unromantic, and the interactions with some of the men in the story never went beyond a kiss or two. That made a nice change!

However, I had a few problems with it, apart from its not following through on the witchy/supernatural element. Detailed descriptions of food menus are not that interesting, and do occur a lot. Also there is quite a bit of repetition, with various people going with Helen to see the access point where she got into the grounds etc. It was pleasing to see that the author had at least done her research about the history of the witchcraft trials - for example, one character tells another that witches were hung in England, not burned - but some of the Americanisms were a little throwing when spoken by characters who were not meant to be American. It was fine for Heather, whose first person viewpoint narrates the whole story, to refer to 'pants' instead of trousers, and 'sidewalk' instead of pavement etc, and given that the Karims are apparently American also, not a problem when they spoke in a similar way, but I wasn't sure if Sean was also American until much later in the story. But Doreen used one or two American expressions and she is definitely meant to be English. This would have been far less common in 1997 than today.

I also wasn't sure why the Karims were meant to be of Eastern extraction originally: there was one reference to them not being practicing Muslims, and their portrayal was of wealthy American industrialist types. Like the witchcraft angle, it seemed a bit pointless. One element I found quite predictable, concerned whom Heather would eventually end up with, because it is a common trope that the man with whom she spent the novel arguing had to be the one even if he didn't seem an attractive character. I did wonder if a certain nice person would turn out to be the villain: although I ended up wide of the mark, I think it might have been more effective somehow.

One point that was surprising, given the author's preface in which she says that only the Lancashire witch trial characters are real and everyone else is a figment of her imagination, is that the two John Tradescants really existed as I have since discovered from articles such as this one - https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/the-museum/history/tradescants/.

Finally, the title of the novel is a complete red herring. Although the Dancing Floor is mentioned a few times, and Jennet eventually explains its purpose, she also says it is in another location entirely. So I couldn't see the reason for using it. The focal place in the story is the overgrown maze so perhaps 'The Labyrinth' would have been more appropriate, especially as the history of labyrinths and garden mazes is an important thread in the story.

Given mixed feelings about this novel - enjoyed the exploits of Helen, was intrigued by the witchcraft angle but disappointed it didn't go anywhere, found it a bit repetitive in places and found the resolution of the romance subplot entirely predictable - I am awarding this a 3 star rating.… (més)

This episode of the Amelia Peabody series is set in 1914. While most of World War I is occurring in Europe, Egypt is not completely spared. In fact, the Turks are eager to bring invasion forces across the Suez Canal and take over Egypt. They are hoping to foment revolution among the young Egyptian radicals to create chaos before their invasion.

Ramses, despite his outward persona as a pacifist uninvolved in war efforts, is acting as an agent of the police to prevent the Turkish invasion and preserve many of his friends among those eager for Egyptian independence. David, supposedly sent to India for his role with the Egyptian nationalists, is undercover in Egypt too.

Ferreting out the spies and preventing the large-scale shipments of arms to reach the potential insurrectionists keeps both Ramses and David busy. Once Amelia and Emerson become aware of Ramses' work, they are eager - perhaps too eager - to help. But all agree that Nefret can't be told of Ramses' investigative work. She has proven to be too impulsive to be trusted with those secrets.

With many potential spies working in Egypt, all of the Emersons are busy trying to find out who is working to betray the British forces and encourage the Turks. Among the suspects are a merry widow with designs on any wealthy man, a Scottish major with a precocious daughter, and a smarmy French count. Oh, and cousin Percy is very active in Egypt too. For some reason, he is trying to make up his differences with the Emersons and being his usual smarmy self. Ramses fears that Nefret will be drawn in by his supposed charm. And the Master Criminal seems to have his hand in things too.

This was an excellent episode in the series. I loved the information about Egypt during World War I. I loved that Ramses and Nefret finally resolved their differences. I loved the intense emotion in this episode from fears for Ramses and the loss of Cousin Johnny in battle to Amelia finally being able to state that she loves her son.… (més)

This episode was begun by Peters before her death and finished by her friend and fellow author Joan Hess.

It's 1912 and the Peabody/Emerson clan has two problems to solve. One has to do with an exquisite bust of Nefertiti and the many forged copies of it floating around Cairo. The other problem has to do with semi-incompetent assassins with monocles who are chasing after Amelia and Ramses.

The missing bust problem brings in potential German goals of disrupting the Egyptian government so that Egypt can be conquered by Germany. There are drugs and drugged archaeologists and a hirsute missionary who is trying to convince the Copts to start a revolution. Ramses and David spend a lot of time in Cairo trying to chase down the original Nefertiti and running afoul of the German embassy.

Meanwhile, Amelia is supposed to be under close supervision to thwart any more assassination attempts while they are digging at Amarna, but she's her usual intrepid and headstrong self and gets into and out of many dangerous situations.

This was an other excellent episode in an engaging historical mystery series.… (més)