The Deeds of the Disturber (Dramatized Adaptation): Amelia Peabody
Amelia Peabody • Book 5
by Elizabeth Peters, Full Cast
Why You'll Love This
A Victorian Egyptologist, a mummy's curse, and a child so catastrophically clever he's practically a hazard — England never stood a chance.
- Great if you want: witty historical mystery with a razor-sharp feminist heroine
- The experience: breezy and fun, with genuine intrigue underneath the comedy
- The writing: Peters skewers Victorian pomposity through Amelia's gloriously self-assured first-person voice
- Skip if: you haven't read earlier books — character dynamics matter here
About This Book
When a night watchman turns up dead beneath the shadow of an ancient Egyptian mummy case, London falls into a frenzy of superstitious dread. Everyone is convinced a millennia-old curse is at work — everyone except the magnificently skeptical Amelia Peabody, who has survived enough genuine dangers across Egypt to have little patience for supernatural nonsense. Back on English soil with her formidable husband Emerson and their relentlessly troublesome son Ramses in tow, Amelia finds herself drawn into a mystery that blends Victorian Gothic atmosphere with sharp-eyed detective work. The stakes are personal, the culprit elusive, and the threat very real.
What makes this entry in Elizabeth Peters's long-running series so rewarding is the voice — Amelia's first-person perspective crackles with wit, self-assurance, and an endearing blindness to her own occasional absurdities. Peters layers genuine Egyptological detail beneath the comedy and suspense, so readers come away entertained and surprisingly informed. The dramatized adaptation format preserves that richly theatrical quality already baked into Peters's dialogue-driven storytelling, giving each character room to breathe on the page while keeping the plot's momentum brisk and satisfying.