A review by redhairedashreads
The Ape Who Guards the Balance by Elizabeth Peters

4.0

 

4 stars - It was really good

It’s 1907 and Amelia Peabody is participating in the Suffrage movement and preparing for another season in Egypt. While Amelia thinks this season in Egypt will be a boring one, fate decides to change that by bringing back an old enemy, the Master Criminal. 

I really enjoyed this adventure in Egypt. When the book starts with Amelia being determined to chain herself to a fence for the suffrage movement I knew it was going to be a good story. The Emerson family really knows how to keep things lively and we see all kinds of hijinks happening in this one. We have kidnappings, a royal tomb, stolen artifacts, jealous enemies, and a surprise couple.

I think part of why I enjoyed this book so much is that we are finally getting Nefret, David, and Ramses POV’s.  While I didn’t really enjoy Ramses or Nefret in the early books, they have really become great characters that I want to know more about. I am extremely interested in seeing how David’s situation plays out, which hopefully will be in the next book. Also I am very invested in Ramses and Nefret’s relationship and can’t wait to see how that will work. 

This book sees the return of the Master Criminal, aka Sethos, who was presumed dead for the past few stories. I was kind of glad we saw the return of this villain because I thought his “death” was a bit too easy. Sethos continues to be a mastermind of disguises and I look forward to seeing him cause havoc in future books. 

Overall, this was another wonderful adventure in Egypt with the Emersons. While it did have some heartbreaking parts, this book continued to show the strength of this family and the strong love they share. I can’t wait to see what happens next for them. Also, Barbara Rosnblat’s narration is gold and really brings these characters to life. 

Trigger Warnings: kidnapping; torture; misogyny; death; racism; death of a friend; grief