Reading (and listening to) Elizabeth Peters

If you haven't read Peter's series starring archaeologists Amelia Peabody Emerson and husband Radcliff Emerson, you've missed a treat. There are nearly twenty of them and they are not only wildly entertaining adventure stories, but full of great factual information since Peters is a PhD in Egyptology from the University of Chicago. Set in Victorian era England and Egypt, you can follow them through from the initial meeting of Emerson and Peabody (Crocodile on the Sandbank) to their son being grown, married and with children of his own--well worth the effort to read them in order. Cool website with chronological listing of the series and character backgrounds is here.  Along with great settings, character development is wonderful--they are all extraordinarily feisty and endearing along with supplementary characters Ramses, "master criminal" Sethos, Evelyn & Walter Emerson, Gargery the butler, adopted daughter Nefret, and Bastet (a cat) typically rounding out the cast. The most recently consumed was Guardian of the Horizon (several published since this one) which involves an emissary from the Lost Oasis that was Nefret's home until she was rescued by the Emersons and adopted as their daughter. Now they are going back, ostensibly on another errand of mercy to help Tarek, the ruler of this secret place. But it is a trap and they will need to use all their tricks and talents to make good their escape. I really also enjoy listening to these books on CD as Barbara Rosenblatt does such an outstanding job with the voices of the character that you really forget it is only one person speaking all the dialog. I also recently dipped back into the Vicky Bliss series (The Laughter of Dead Kings) by Peters, with another indomitable female--an art historian-- as the .protagonist. These adventures are set in contemporary times, taking place largely in Europe and occasionally in Egypt. An overview of the series is provided in Wikipedia.