The Serpent on the Crown
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![]() First edition cover for The Serpent on the Crown | |
Author | Elizabeth Peters |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Series | Amelia Peabody mysteries |
Genre | Historical mystery |
Publisher | HarperCollins |
Publication date | 2005 |
Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
Pages | 350 pp |
ISBN | 0-06-059178-1 |
OCLC | 57008254 |
813/.54 22 | |
LC Class | PS3563.E747 S44 2005 |
Preceded by | Guardian of the Horizon |
Followed by | Tomb of the Golden Bird |
The Serpent on the Crown is the 17th in a series of historical mystery novels, written by Elizabeth Peters and featuring fictional sleuth and archaeologist Amelia Peabody.
Plot summary[]
In 1922, the Emersons are excavating at Deir el Medina when a melodramatic visitor delivers a challenge—and a solid gold ancient statuette—to them: find out where it came from and why it brings bad luck to its owners. Emerson, of course, doesn't believe in curses, but he does believe someone has robbed a find of historic proportions. When their visitor turns up dead and her stepchildren disappear, everyone except the Emersons believe the murder is a family affair.
Ramses, meanwhile, finds a papyrus which he suspects to be of historic importance, and an assistant who is not all he seems.
Title[]
The book's title is from the Poetical Stela of Thutmose III:
- "I have robbed their nostrils of the breath of life and made the dread of you fill their hearts. My serpent on your brow consumed them."
See also[]
- List of characters in the Amelia Peabody series
- Amelia Peabody
- 2005 American novels
- Historical mystery novels
- Fiction set in 1922
- Novels set in the 1920s
- Novels set in Egypt
- HarperCollins books
- 2000s historical novel stubs
- 2000s mystery novel stubs