Crocodile on the Sandbank

In Egypt the two women travel up the Nile and meet the Emerson brothers: gentle Walter and the brilliant, short-tempered archaeologist Radcliffe Emerson, who is excavating a remote ancient site and has no patience for tourists. When Emerson falls ill, Amelia takes charge of his care with her usual determination, and soon the whole party is camped at the dig. Then a mummy begins to appear at night, frightening the workers and threatening the excavation.

Amelia narrates with confident, comic self-assurance, and her verbal battles with Emerson are among the book's great pleasures. The author was a trained Egyptologist, and the details of travel and excavation in the nineteenth century are vivid and accurate. The mystery itself is fairly simple, but the characters, the humour and the setting carry the story. There is mild danger and no graphic violence, and the romance is old-fashioned and funny.

Witty, adventurous and charming, the first of a long and much-loved series that follows Amelia and her family over many years. Readers who enjoy it will find plenty more adventures waiting, beginning with The Curse of the Pharaohs. About 272 pages in the Grand Central mass-market paperback.