Lion in the Valley

Written by Elizabeth Peters

Narrated by Barbara Rosenblat

Amelia's investigation of some ancient pyramids throws her once again in the path of that arch villain, Sethos, the Master Criminal. But this time, it is not antiquities Sethos is after, but Amelia herself!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 19, 2004
• ISBN: 9781440781056

Elizabeth Peters

Elizabeth Peters earned her Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago’s famed Oriental Institute. During her fifty-year career, she wrote more than seventy novels and three nonfiction books on Egypt. She received numerous writing awards and, in 2012, was given the first Amelia Peabody Award, created in her honor. She died in 2013, leaving a partially completed manuscript of The Painted Queen.

Reviews for Lion in the Valley

[ellelainey · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Black Pyramid...The Master Criminal...Ramses getting kidnapped! Gosh, it's just full of adventure. You can't get any better than Radcliffe and Amelia being dragged into a murder mystery that seems over their heads, and turns out to be perfectly brilliant.

[kp9949 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

4th in the series. An easy read. Fairly predictable but enjoyable.

[wisewoman_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This, the fourth in Elizabeth Peters's wildly successful Amelia Peabody mysteries, ranks low as a mystery but passable as a piece of entertainment. Spoilers follow. It's the archaeological season once more and Amelia, Emerson, and Ramses are headed to a coveted dig site at Dahshoor. Last season they met with a villain Amelia can only describe as "the master criminal" or "that genius of crime" (to Emerson's extreme annoyance). When an unsavory character is murdered at the hotel just before they set off for their dig, Amelia is sure it's the work of the M. C... and that he's after them again. I suppose the murder of Prince Kalenischeff counts as the mystery, but it feels rather incidental to the main plot, which is not the tightest in Peters's repertoire. For much of the story, the Emersons simply remain at the dig, theorize about the murderer, and scheme to get some privacy at night. Amelia spends some of her time rehabilitating a fallen Englishman, Donald Fraser, and hiding a lovely young heiress, Miss Enid Debenham, who is wanted for Kalenischeff's murder. The usual love story ensues. Where the action really starts is at the very end, when Amelia is abducted by the M. C. and learns, to her horror, that he has fallen in love with her and hopes to win her heart! Sethos is an interesting character, but sadly underdeveloped. And now it seems he's left the arena forever. It's too bad; highly competent criminals are the most entertaining to pit your heroes against. Though Sethos's passion for Amelia does give the story a strange dimension. Maybe it's good not to explore that particular plotline too far, thrilling reading though it is. I knew about Sethos falling for Amelia, unfortunately; I listened to the fifth book first by accident, in which Amelia alludes to the events of this story. I listened to this on audiobook. Barbara Rosenblat was born to voice this character and once again gives the story a fabulous narration. Because of Rosenblat, I will be enjoying the rest of the series on audiobook, notwithstanding all my print copies. She's that good. Overall, this is a so-so addition to the series. The love story is predictable, the bulk of the story meanders along somewhat plotlessly until the racing finish, and the mystery isn't all that mysterious. But it's still told in Amelia's inimitable voice and there are some funny moments. Entertaining, but not a stand-out by any means.

[nicolette · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Possibly my favorite of the series although the end was rather strange. But the book moved along briskly. On to the next one :)

[Andrea · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was just right. Family life, seasoned with academic search in a swirl of crime investigation and justice makes the book a immersive experience that you can't deny. Amazed by the amazing!

[Rachel Nugent · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

one of the strongest in the Amelia Peabody series, Elizabeth Peters hit her stride and finally reveals to us the true character of the Master Criminal.

[etxgardener · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I listened to this installment in the Amelia Peabody detective series as an audio book, and I have to say that the narration of Barbara Rosenblatt makes the book funnier than when I read the print edition.This volume finds Amelia headed to an excavation site in Dahshoor with her husband Emerson and their son Ramses who is now 8-years old. Amelia feel a sense of foreboding because the last time they excavated in this location, they encountered the master criminal, Sethos, and despite their attempts to capture him, his escaped through their fingers.Sethos shows up again, but this time it’s Amelia herself tat he’s after, and their encounter makes for laugh out loud listening.

[jennybeast · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Re-read it and found it as funny and fiery as ever. Amelia is a meddling, headstrong, melodramatic heroine after my own heart.

[sdramsey-298717 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm so enjoying revisiting these books in audio format!

[a9shelf9apart · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ok I'm still loving this series and this family so I'll just focus on the highlight of this book:

Amelia and Emerson getting amorous in a tent in the desert, then when one of the other characters comments on hearing strange cries and moans overnight, Amelia is like, "yeah, the jackals are super noisy at night." 🤷

She's my queen.

[leslie398 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

2019 reread via Recorded Books audiobook narrated by Barbara Rosenblat

[cyderry · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Amelia, Emerson and their 8yr. old son Ramses have returned to Egypt for another dig. During a failed kidnapping attempt of Ramses, Amelia and Emerson connect with a young man down on his luck as well as a young woman who is searching for a lost love. The "master Criminal" is suspected by Amelia and so she sets out to thwart his evil plans.The plot lacked a lot for me so I am debating whether I will continue this series or not.

[kathy89_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Amelia, Emerson and their son are on an expedition when their son is kidnapped and saved by a suspicious robed man. Their son, 8 yr old Rames was constantly getting himself into trouble and the expedition was spent protecting him, listening to him talk constantly and match-making between a runaway woman and the robed man.

[themulhern · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read it, I enjoyed it, it made no sense. I'll happily read the next, when I can get my hands on the audio. I enjoyed the little details, the tourists constantly showing up and interfering with the excavations.

[empressreece · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really liked this story for one because it was set in Egypt and the exotic locale always makes the plot line just that much better to me. I really enjoyed the twist at the end involving the "Master Criminal." Peters makes all of her characters really likeable and I even like the Master Criminal now. lol He is unique in his own way. So anyways, I was kind of dissapointed to learn that the next book is set in England but I'm sure I'll like it too. I guess I can't have every story set in Egypt. : )

[karin7-11 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

3.5 stars rounded to 3

Peabody, Emerson and the ever precocious Ramses are back in Egypt, set to work in Dashoor. But before they leave Cairo, a man has been found stabbed to death lying on the bed of an unmarried woman's room, a no-no in nineteenth century, but she has disappeared. Naturally Peabody and Emerson (that's Amelia and her husband, Radcliffe, who call each other by surnames, and he sticks to her maiden name) realize the lady is innocent.

And we're off on a rollicking mystery adventure where Ramses gives his polysyllabic speeches and disappears whenever possible, young lovers appear, danger lurks and the mysterious Master Criminal is somehow behind most of the trouble. The second half of the book was much more fun than was the first half (3 stars for the first half, barely, 4 for the second half, so therefore the 3.5 stars rounded down rather than up.) While some things are fairly predictable, there are a few fun surprises.

[fmrox · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Amelia, Radcliffe and Ramses explore another pyramid in Egypt. They run into several new and interesting characters. They investigate a curse that scares the locals. But, this bascially the plot for all the books. It is easily entertaing, but just as easibly forgettable. I still find the series entertaining, though

[jean_sexton-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another romp in Egypt, with Ramses coming into his own. No longer just an annoying child character, he is growing into an interesting person. Amelia is up to her typical activities. As is usual, there is a great deal of humor (all quite unintentional on Amelia's part) in the telling of her story. If you like your mysteries with a dose of quiet snickers, you'll enjoy this fourth book in the series.

[pussreboots · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Lion in the Valley by Elizabeth Peters is the fourth book in the Amelia Peabody series. For services rendered in The Mummy Case, the Emersons are given permission to work on the black pyramid in Dashoor.Their work is hindered by a pair of twins (Ronald and Donald), the return of the master criminal who is now smitten with Amelia, and a young lady. There's also an opium addict and the usual mayhem.This mayhem stems (in part) from a spirit in white who is haunting the dig site. The local workers are growing convinced that the area is cursed, making it harder and harder to find reliable workers.While I enjoyed Rosenblat's performance, in trying to sit down and write a coherent review of my re-read, I'm having a devil of a time remembering what happened. I keep remembering details from The Mummy Case, probably in light of it's near by location. Part of it too, is the Master Criminal's growing importance in this part of the series. He, after Ramses, is my least favorite character. He is too much like an Egypt based Moriarty — and I don't like Moriarty either!

[keenchris · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Decent entry in the series. Departs from the Egyptology somewhat to begin the story arc of "the master/Sethos" character, introduced in the last book. Some nice character development of Ramses (the son) as he is now 8 years old and a more fully formed addition to the narrative. Although some of the antics of Ramses would be more believable in a James Bond movie! The details of the physical relationship between Amelia & Emerson is interesting and advances the characters but feels clunky at times. The plot is basic although at times a bit difficult to follow: why are the names of two main characters SO SIMILAR-and the other main character only peripherally mentioned until it becomes a MAJOR CHARACTER that is vital to the whole plot?!! All in all a good read but probably more interesting to established fans of the series-gives the impression of a "bridge book" to set up the next few books and not really necessary to enjoy the books before or after.

[atimco-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This, the fourth in Elizabeth Peters's wildly successful Amelia Peabody mysteries, ranks low as a mystery but passable as a piece of entertainment. Spoilers follow. It's the archaeological season once more and Amelia, Emerson, and Ramses are headed to a coveted dig site at Dahshoor. Last season they met with a villain Amelia can only describe as "the master criminal" or "that genius of crime" (to Emerson's extreme annoyance). When an unsavory character is murdered at the hotel just before they set off for their dig, Amelia is sure it's the work of the M. C... and that he's after them again. I suppose the murder of Prince Kalenischeff counts as the mystery, but it feels rather incidental to the main plot, which is not the tightest in Peters's repertoire. For much of the story, the Emersons simply remain at the dig, theorize about the murderer, and scheme to get some privacy at night. Amelia spends some of her time rehabilitating a fallen Englishman, Donald Fraser, and hiding a lovely young heiress, Miss Enid Debenham, who is wanted for Kalenischeff's murder. The usual love story ensues. Where the action really starts is at the very end, when Amelia is abducted by the M. C. and learns, to her horror, that he has fallen in love with her and hopes to win her heart! Sethos is an interesting character, but sadly underdeveloped. And now it seems he's left the arena forever. It's too bad; highly competent criminals are the most entertaining to pit your heroes against. Though Sethos's passion for Amelia does give the story a strange dimension. Maybe it's good not to explore that particular plotline too far, thrilling reading though it is. I knew about Sethos falling for Amelia, unfortunately; I listened to the fifth book first by accident, in which Amelia alludes to the events of this story. I listened to this on audiobook. Barbara Rosenblat was born to voice this character and once again gives the story a fabulous narration. Because of Rosenblat, I will be enjoying the rest of the series on audiobook, notwithstanding all my print copies. She's that good. Overall, this is a so-so addition to the series. The love story is predictable, the bulk of the story meanders along somewhat plotlessly until the racing finish, and the mystery isn't all that mysterious. But it's still told in Amelia's inimitable voice and there are some funny moments. Entertaining, but not a stand-out by any means.

[gttexas · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Amelia and Emmerson excel in this early Amelia Peabody adventure. Always good for fun and an enjoyable break from more serious reading.

[cathymoore_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As much as I love Amelia Peabody as a character, this book is seriously let down by the plot. When I am reading books in a series featuring the same characters and the same setting everytime the author needs to bring some orignal plotting to the table for each instalment. Unfortunately this is essentially a re-hashing of the previous book in the series. The only thing that seems to have changed are the names of some of the characters. Amelia is hunting down the Master Criminal, Emerson is disagreeing with all her theories and Ramses is being precocious. This really lacks originality. I hope the next one is better.

[lisapaul_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Untoward and unwelcome turn to the plot construction / genre, in the last third or so. Turned from a Snarky Chick Book into some kind of rampageous pulp. I like those, but I prefer to know when I'm entering into reading one.

[riverwillow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Emerson return to Egypt, this time to dig at Dahshoor - which also featured in 'The Mummy Case'. Is it Amelia's imagination or can she see the hand of the Master Criminal behind the attempt to kidnap Ramses? Ramses is rescued by Nemo, an opium smoking down-on-his luck Scotsman, who is immediately hired by Emerson as Ramses's caretaker. In the meantime Amelia has determined to rescue a young Englishwoman, whose suspected of murder. This is an often hilarious read - Amelia's encounter with the Master Criminal caused peals of laughter, which provoked some consternation and muttering from my fellow morning commuters. A great instalment in the series.

[glorybe1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I came across this by accident and have to say it was quite an amusing read. A series of books about Amelia Peabody and her husband Emerson, archeaologists, digging in Eygpt at the turn of the century.I found it very tongue in cheek and couldn't take it too seriously, but I found myself smiling at their adventures trying to find 'The Master Criminal'.Quite a good filler until something meatier comes along!!

[alana_leigh_6 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Perhaps my favorite Amelia Peabody Emerson mystery yet! Elizabeth Peters isn't exactly a brilliant mystery novelist as far as the mystery part is concerned, but she does, indeed, craft a fun tale -- and she's created two very charming lead characters whose banter more than makes up for any deficiencies as far as the mystery is concerned. Thankfully any issues which cropped up in the past few novels and proved to be irritating (aka Ramses and his speech defect) have been firmly dealt with and reasonably worked around. True, things are a bit formulaic and yes, there are several things that the reader just needs to accept and roll with, but hey, I felt more entertained by this book than I have by the previous two installments and this firmly planted me in the pro-Peters camp so that I know I'll keep reading the series, so clearly the book is a very welcome chapter in the lives of Amelia Peabody and Radcliffe Emerson.In Lion in the Valley, the Emerson family heads to Egypt for a season spent excavating at Dahshoor. They acquired this coveted site after events from the previous novel saw them all imprisoned in the black pyramid at Dahshoor and young Ramses may or may not have helped the Director of Antiquities to a rich and exciting find. Even with such glorious pyramids, though, one could not think that Amelia Peabody Emerson would be so content as to ignore the danger from the Master Criminal, that fiend who runs a black-market antiquities ring. Those readers who were growing a bit annoyed at the constant speculation on such a character will be quite pleased with this novel, where considerable progress is made towards unmasking the devil, or at least learning more about his (her?) passions and methods. The Emersons have a talent for "adopting" down-on-their-luck Englishmen (a role filled just as often by Englishwomen, though) and this holds true here. They run across a young man named Nemo (or such is the name he selects from himself) who is obviously a well-bred Englishman (or Scot) even if he is dirty, dressed as an Arab, and has clearly been smoking opium. After Nemo saves Ramses from potentially being abducted, Emerson insists that they take in this stray and assigns him the role of Ramses-caretaker (no one is much surprised that this post is never filled by one person for more than one book). Not to be outdone, Peabody has her own idea as to who should be taken under her wing this trip when she learns the identity of a young lady named Miss Enid Debenham, an heiress seen in the company of the scheming Kalenischeff. Of course, when Kalenischeff is found dead in her room and Miss Debenham is nowhere to be found, there is some question as to whether or not the lady can look after herself. Naturally, of course, there's plenty of romantic backstory to entangle "Nemo" and Enid and that all plays a role as the Emersons try to determine who killed Kalenischeff, who is behind the antiquities smuggling ring, and who seems to be sending Amelia little tokens of love... Of primary importance to me in this particular volume was the fact that Ramses has mostly outgrown any speech defects that rendered his soliloquies quite irritating. Now the boy is merely tiresome, but his parents seem to share the same opinion as this reader and so they are frequently cutting the boy off... of course, this often has the obvious effect of silencing the astute young child when he's about to supply a crucial bit of information, thus leading to confusion and drama, but so it goes. The somewhat harder to swallow storyline involves the identity of the master criminal and his true passions... for even if we can adore Amelia Peabody, let's face it... she was initially described in the first book as a pretty solid spinster entirely out of fashion and unless love has totally transformed her, I'm finding it pretty hard that this mastermind has worshipped her from afar. Be that as it may, at least we do get to interact with this genius of crime and we get to see Emerson fume and fuss with jealousy as Amelia bumbles on, oblivious until it's all immediately in her face (or lap). Peters seems to have allowed herself to be a touch more romance-y in each novel, though it's not like there's anything graphic. Perhaps it's simply that she's a little freer with the jokes on this topic, as with a particularly funny exchange when Miss Debenham comments that she heard such strange noises in the desert during the night... all these cries and moans. It's rather quite cute to see Peters add in those small touches while, thankfully, refraining from totally veering into romance novel territory. As passionate as Peabody and Emerson might be, I rather prefer the pan off into the sunset technique as far as they're concerned.Since I was a little disappointed with The Mummy Case, I was all the more pleased to see that Peters had produced quite a pleasant addition to her series with Lion in the Valley. By this point, most readers will have decided if they're jumping ship on the series or sticking it out and, unsurprisingly, I shall continue to read. The good thing, though, is the fact that these don't particularly require the reader to devour them with great speed, so I feel like I can stretch out my enjoyment to savor these books from this point on, dipping into my stash whenever a rainy day permits.

[tdfangirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not my favorite Amelia Peabody book so far, but the ending had me laughing out loud, particularly the mental image of Amelia wearing a harem girl's outfit over her underclothes. Ha!

[kayceel_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Master Criminal! He of the wickedly smart criminal mind, who so clearly intrigues Amelia and infuriates Emerson.Amelia, despite having the pyramids at Dashur to crawl around in, finds herself fascinated with the murder of a Cairo antiquities shop owner. As she investigates, she becomes caught up in more murder, disappearances and, of course, the mysterious "Master Criminal."LOVE. Recommended!

[tjsjohanna_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was an enjoyable installment because of the major introduction of Sethos. Amelia and Emerson continue to have an amusing relationship, but the element of jealousy introduces another layer to their relationship. Ramses continues to be funny and annoying at the same time - but with parents like his, anything else would be a little odd.