''The Ape Who Guards the Balance'' is the tenth in a series of
historical mystery novels, written by
Elizabeth Peters
Barbara Louise Mertz (September 29, 1927 – August 8, 2013) was an American author who wrote under her own name as well as under the pseudonyms Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels. In 1952, she received a PhD in Egyptology from the Univers ...
and featuring fictional sleuth and archaeologist
Amelia Peabody.
Explanation of the novel's title
The book's title refers to the Egyptian god
Thoth, the divine scribe who waits for the heart of the dead to be weighed on a scale and judged so that he may record its fate; Thoth is usually represented as having the head of an
ibis, but also appears as a
baboon or
ape with the balancing scales.
Plot summary
Luxor, 1906-1907. The Emerson clan is trying to determine where to dig during the upcoming season. But before they even leave England, they encounter
Sethos and foil an attempt to kidnap
Amelia. Suspicion for the attempt falls on Sethos, but not everyone is sure.
Upon arriving in Egypt, the children,
Nefret,
Ramses
Ramesses may refer to:
Ancient Egypt Pharaohs of the nineteenth dynasty
* Ramesses I, founder of the 19th Dynasty
* Ramesses II, also called "Ramesses the Great"
** Prince Ramesses (prince), second son of Ramesses II
** Prince Ramesses-Merya ...
and
David, now in their early twenties but still children to Amelia and Emerson, acquire a magnificent papyrus, but are also stalked. Is Sethos behind this too?
Since Emerson has managed to annoy
M. Maspero to the point of distraction, he is initially not even allowed near the
Valley of the Kings, where another of Emerson’s rivals and targets of invective,
Theodore M. Davis
Theodore M. Davis (May 7, 1838 – February 23, 1915) was an American lawyer and businessman. He is best known for his excavations in Egypt's Valley of the Kings between 1902 and 1913.
Biography
Theodore Montgomery Davis was born in Springfield, ...
, has the rights to the entire valley. Much to everyone’s surprise (and possibly with Nefret’s help), Emerson is granted permission by Davis to clean up three tombs thought to be already excavated in full,
KV3
Tomb KV3, located in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, was intended for the burial of an unidentified son of Pharaoh Ramesses III during the early part of the Twentieth Dynasty. It is similar in design to the "straight axis" tombs typical of this dynast ...
,
KV4
KV4 is a tomb in the Valley of the Kings (Egypt). The tomb was initiated for the burial of Ramesses XI but it is likely that its construction was abandoned and that it was never used for Ramesses's interment. It also seems likely that Pinedjem I in ...
and
KV5
Tomb KV5 is a subterranean, rock-cut tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
It belonged to the sons of Ramesses II. Though KV5 was partially excavated as early as 1825, its true extent was discovered in 1995 by Kent R. Weeks and his exploration team. ...
.
Not only does his rival Davis find yet another rich tomb, right next to the debris-filled and empty tomb he excavates, once again somebody is still after the Emersons—particularly, it seems, Amelia. But help is on the way, from surprising, or perhaps not so surprising, quarters.
Actual history
In a link to the real world of
Egyptology, the greatest irony is that had Emerson continued to dig in KV5, he would have discovered a tomb complex that was far more elaborate than any ever found in Egypt. Instead, the fictional Emerson failed to uncover what the real
Dr. Kent Weeks discovered in 1995, finding the most extensive tomb in the Valley of the Kings, built for the children of
Ramesses II and containing over 150 rooms, many untouched for thousands of years.
Awards
The novel was nominated for an
Agatha Award
The Agatha Awards, named for Agatha Christie, are literary awards for mystery and crime writers who write in the traditional mystery subgenre: "books typified by the works of Agatha Christie . . . loosely defined as mysteries that contain no expli ...
in the "Best Novel" category in 1998.
See also
*
List of characters in the Amelia Peabody series
The Amelia Peabody series of historical mystery novels is written by Elizabeth Peters, set in Victorian Egypt among a family of eccentric archaeologists.
Note that, as with most character lists, the descriptions herein necessarily contain numerou ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ape Who Guards the Balance, The
1998 American novels
Amelia Peabody
Novels set in Egypt
Fiction set in 1906
Fiction set in 1907
Avon (publisher) books