Crocodile on the Sandbank
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season281 pages, about 6 hours: four-fifths the length of a typical book on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbIn Rome, Amelia rescues the abandoned Evelyn Barton-Forbes before the two sail on to Egypt.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live byIn 17 reviews from critics and book blogs, 13 credit the plot and none credit the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesOne blog calls Amelia Peabody a Jane Eyre with money and a backbone; another likens the book to Agatha Christie’s mysteries.
The case for it
on Amelia’s voice
“Amelia herself is everything I love in a narrator, witty, sarcastic, straight-forward”
a book blog on Peabody and Emerson
“It has to be all of the interactions between Peabody and Emerson”
a book blog on Amelia and Emerson’s banter
“watching an old movie from the 40’s with Hepburn and Tracy”
a book blog on Emerson’s dedication
“I loved his dedication to preserving and documenting Egypts history”
five stars · a book blog
The case against
on the length
“The book dragged on for pages and pages and chapters”
a book blog on the mystery plot
“The plot of this book is so slight as to be transparent”
a book blog on the prose style
“it’s still loweroglyphics for those who barely read”
Kirkus Reviews, 1974 on Amelia catching on
“someone as intelligent as Amelia wasn’t able to immediately work out what was happening”
a book blog
