The Curse of the Pharaohs - Elizabeth Peters [0]
“No one is better at juggling torches while dancing on a high wire than Elizabeth Peters.”
—Chicago Tribune
“Peters’s mystery series is such delicious fun.”
—Winston-Salem Journal
“Amelia Peabody Emerson, archeologist extraordinaire, and arguably the most potent female force to hit Egypt since Cleopatra, is digging in again!”
—Philadelphia Inquirer
“Plenty of interesting Egyptian and archeological lore, lots of danger.”
—New York Times Book Review
“Amelia is rather like Indiana Jones, Sherlock Holmes, and Miss Marple all rolled into one.”
—Washington Post Book World
“Elizabeth Peters is wickedly clever…. [Her] women are smart, strong, bold, cunning, and highly educated, just like herself.”
—San Diego Reader
“What’s more fun than an Elizabeth Peters book? Not much that’s legal!”
—Salisbury Post (NC)
“It’s always fun to go on safari with this crew.”
—Anniston Star (AL)
BOOKS BY ELIZABETH PETERS
Crocodile on the Sandbank
The Curse of the Pharaohs
The Hippopotamus Pool
The Last Camel Died at Noon
The Mummy Case
The Murders of Richard III
Naked Once More
Night Train to Memphis
Seeing a Large Cat
The Seventh Sinner
Silhouette in Scarlet
The Snake, The Crocodile and the Dog
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 1981 by Elizabeth Peters
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
This edition is published in arrangement with Dodd, Mead & Company
Grand Central Publishing
Hachette Book Group
237 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10017
Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com
www.twitter.com/grandcentralpub
Grand Central Publishing is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
The Grand Central Publishing name and logo is a trademark of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
First eBook Edition: February 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-57320-7
Contents
GREAT ACCLAIM FOR ELIZABETH PETERS AND THE CURSE OF THE PHARAOHS
BOOKS BY ELIZABETH PETERS
Copyright
CHAPTER One
CHAPTER Two
CHAPTER Three
CHAPTER Four
CHAPTER Five
CHAPTER Six
CHAPTER Seven
CHAPTER Eight
CHAPTER Nine
CHAPTER Ten
CHAPTER Eleven
CHAPTER Twelve
CHAPTER Thirteen
CHAPTER Fourteen
CHAPTER Fifteen
CHAPTER Sixteen
CHAPTER Seventeen
To Phyllis Whitney
CHAPTER
One
THE events I am about to relate began on a December afternoon, when I had invited Lady Harold Carrington and certain of her friends to tea.
Do not, gentle reader, be misled by this introductory statement. It is accurate (as my statements always are); but if you expect the tale that follows to be one of pastoral domesticity, enlivened only by gossip about the county gentry, you will be sadly mistaken. Bucolic peace is not my ambience, and the giving of tea parties is by no means my favorite amusement. In fact, I would prefer to be pursued across the desert by a band of savage Dervishes brandishing spears and howling for my blood. I would rather be chased up a tree by a mad dog, or face a mummy risen from its grave. I would rather be threatened by knives, pistols, poisonous snakes, and the curse of a long-dead king.
Lest I be accused of exaggeration, let me point out that I have had all those experiences, save one. However, Emerson once remarked that if I should encounter a band of Dervishes, five minutes of my nagging would unquestionably inspire even the mildest of them to massacre me.
Emerson considers this sort of remark humorous. Five years of marriage have taught me that even if one is unamused by the (presumed) wit of one’s spouse, one does not say so. Some concessions to temperament are necessary if the marital state is to flourish.