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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Suspenseful Look at a Lost Kingdom, 19 Jun 2004
One of the great traditions of adventure novels has been to take "civilized" people into hidden places where primitive people live a different way. In the process, readers learn a lot about themselves and the ways that "civilization" needs to be improved. Lost Horizons is one of the most famous of such stories. In an earlier time, H. Rider Haggard wrote his remarkable book, She, in this genre which seems to have been a direct inspiration for The Last Camel Died at Noon based on comments by the author in the acknowledgments and the book's story. But if you know "She," you will not necessarily be able to anticipate what happens in this story. If you have read no other books in this series, I suggest that you move back to the beginning in The Crocodile on the Sandbank and read the four subsequent novels before reading this one. The books build on one another, and deserve sequential reading for the most pleasure and understanding. Amelia Peabody, her husband Emerson and their son Ramses are among the most distinctive and entertaining characters to ever populate a historical mystery novel, and they are as delightful as possible in playing their assigned roles in The Last Camel Died at Noon. The Emersons find themselves drawn to the Sudan in an unusual adventure. Progress by British troops has reopened such of the historical sites, and the Emersons race behind the sloppy Budge to record what they find there. While planning the trip, they are importuned to help search for the lost explorer, Willoughby Forth, and his new bride, who have not been seen since they left on a trip into the Sudan fourteen years earlier. While in the Sudan, the Emersons find evidence that perhaps it may be possible to find the Forths. After a relative of the Forths disappears into the desert where he is attacked by raiders, the Emersons resolve to follow. Soon, their last camel dies at noon. What will happen next? The story is quite intriguing and develops many aspects of archeology that I enjoyed. My only complaint was that the precocious Ramses was a little too precocious in the role that he played in this book. It just didn't ring true in places. The story, however, is a rich and interesting one. I highly recommend it.
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by Elizabeth Peters
by Elizabeth Peters
by Elizabeth Peters
by Elizabeth Peters
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