Delving out into the realms of books which come to me with good reports but I’m not really sure are my thing and I found myself in 1880s Egypt with the first episode of a long series featuring Amelia Peabody. For the first half this was a fun book, it’s pretty much a parody of 1880s writing and of what ladies should be like at that time, and I enjoyed it in a slow kind of way. Amelia is a likeable character and it’s pleasant to pass the time with her.

It wasn’t until the middle of the book that I felt it really get going. It’s labelled as a murder mystery but unless I’m missing something major this wasn’t one. I expect somebody labelled up the whole series and didn’t check whether a murder actually happened in every book. So perhaps I was waiting for something that wasn’t going to happen, but whatever, the book suddenly took off halfway through and I flew through the second half of entertaining antics in the desert.

I won’t rush to read any more of these but I will probably try a second installment in the future, now that I’ve got my bearings I think the series could prove to be a lot of fun.