Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Crocodile on the Sandbank | 1975 | Elizabeth Peters | Buy |
| 2 | Misterio en Egipto | 1975 | Elizabeth Peters | N/A |
| 3 | The Curse of the Pharaohs | 1981 | Elizabeth Peters | Buy |
| 4 | The Mummy Case | 1985 | Elizabeth Peters | Buy |
| 5 | Lion in the Valley | 1986 | Elizabeth Peters | Buy |
| 6 | The Deeds of the Disturber | 1988 | Elizabeth Peters | Buy |
| 7 | The Last Camel Died at Noon | 1991 | Elizabeth Peters | Buy |
| 8 | The Snake, the Crocodile and the Dog | 1992 | Elizabeth Peters | Buy |
| 9 | The Hippopotamus Pool | 1996 | Elizabeth Peters | Buy |
| 10 | Seeing a Large Cat | 1997 | Elizabeth Peters | Buy |
| 11 | The Ape Who Guards the Balance | 1998 | Elizabeth Peters | Buy |
| 12 | The Falcon at the Portal | 1999 | Elizabeth Peters | Buy |
| 13 | He Shall Thunder in the Sky | 2000 | Elizabeth Peters | Buy |
| 14 | Lord of the Silent | 2001 | Elizabeth Peters | Buy |
| 15 | The Golden One | 2002 | Elizabeth Peters | Buy |
| 16 | Children of the Storm | 2003 | Elizabeth Peters | Buy |
| 17 | Guardian of the Horizon | 2004 | Elizabeth Peters | Buy |
| 18 | The Serpent on the Crown | 2005 | Elizabeth Peters | Buy |
| 19 | Tomb of the Golden Bird | 2006 | Elizabeth Peters | Buy |
| 20 | A River in the Sky | 2010 | Elizabeth Peters | Buy |
| 21 | Someone in the House | 1981 | Elizabeth Peters | Buy |
| 22 | Black Rainbow | 1982 | Elizabeth Peters | Buy |
| 23 | Amelia Peabody Omnibus | 2012 | Elizabeth Peters | Buy |
| 24 | The Painted Queen | 2014 | Elizabeth Peters | Buy |
The Amelia Peabody series is Elizabeth Peters’ most popular and longest-running work. It begins with Crocodile on the Sandbank (1975), in which Amelia Peabody Emerson, a wealthy and opinionated Victorian Englishwoman, travels to Egypt and falls in love with both the country and the irascible archaeologist Radcliffe Emerson. The two marry and spend the following decades excavating sites along the Nile while solving murders, foiling tomb robbers, and raising a family. The series is narrated primarily through Amelia’s journals, and her voice is one of the most distinctive in mystery fiction: confident, occasionally pompous, and always entertaining.
Over 20 novels, the series tracks the Emerson family from the 1880s through the end of World War I and into the 1920s. Real historical events and archaeological discoveries are woven into the plots, including the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. The cast grows as the Emersons’ son Ramses and his wife Nefret take on larger roles in later books. Peters drew heavily on her doctorate in Egyptology, and the archaeological details are accurate and lovingly rendered. The final novel, The Painted Queen (2014), was left incomplete at Peters’ death in 2013 and was finished by her friend and fellow mystery writer Joan Hess.