The Painted Queen

Arriving in Cairo for the 1912-1913 excavation season, Amelia Peabody is relaxing in a bath when a man with a knife protruding from his back staggers into the chamber and utters one word—“Murder!”—before dying. It becomes apparent that someone saved Amelia from a would-be assassin—someone who is keeping an eye on the intrepid Englishwoman. But nothing will deter Amelia as she and her husband, Emerson, head to Amarna, where a priceless treasure was recently discovered: the iconic Nefertiti bust, crafted in 1345 B.C. It is one of the most precious Egyptian artifacts ever found . . . and now, it seems, it is unaccountably missing. For Amelia, this excavation season will be unforgettable, as a parade of men in monocles dies under suspicious circumstances, fascinating new relics are unearthed, a murderous quest for vengeance is thwarted, and a diabolical mystery is solved at last.

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.