Crocodile on the Sandbank

⚖The case for it

You will crack the mystery long before Amelia does, and you will clock the sparks with Emerson the moment he opens his mouth to insult her. Read it anyway; the plot was never the point. Amelia Peabody narrates her own brilliance without a flicker of doubt, and that unshakable self-regard is at once the joke and the pleasure. Peters held a real doctorate in Egyptology, so the dig stays accurate even while the whodunit stays obvious. What you get instead is company: a heroine never once at a loss, and a series you will not want to leave.

— the honest librarian

✕The case against

The mystery is the thinnest thing on the dig: you will solve it chapters before Amelia does, somewhere between rounds of banter. Emerson is introduced mid-argument, and anyone who has ever read a book knows they will be engaged by the end. For all Amelia's parasol-first feminism, the Egyptians in her Egypt are porters and picturesque backdrop; the empire holds the camera. Comfort food, expertly seasoned.

— the honest librarian