In 1975, writer-Egyptologist Elizabeth Peters began her series of archaeological mysteries with Crocodile on the Sandbank, featuring the unusual Victorian Egyptologist Amelia Peabody Emerson. Now, Peters continues with the 11th installment, The Falcon At The Portal . We see an older Amelia here, secretly preserving her youthful appearance by covering up the gray that has crept into her black locks and suspecting that her attractive, hot-tempered husband, Radcliffe, is doing the same. Their troubled son Ramses has spent months at a time studying away from the family in his attempts to deal with his passion for the Emersons' beautiful ward, Nefret. Readers will remember this exotic beauty whom Amelia rescued from a desert oasis in The Last Camel Died at Noon.
Troubles anew await the Emersons as they prepare for another season's archaeological dig in Egypt.
Radcliffe's irascible nature has landed him yet another seemingly dull site at the pyramids of Zawaiet el Aryan. But this time things come to a boil before the family even leaves England. Someone is selling forged antiquities and using a friend and fellow archaeologist as scapegoat. Troubles are never small for the Emersons. Soon, even the reader is forced to admit that the family will never be quite the same again after this adventure.