Crocodile on the Sandbank by Eizabeth Peters

Also writes under Barbara Michaels

Introduces us to Amelia Peabody

Set in 1884, Amelia Peabody is not your typcial female of the time. She is a spinster living with her aging father and more educated than most men. She lives through her books, so after her father dies she receives a large inheritance and decides to use it for travel. On her way through Rome to Egypt, she meets Evelyn Barton-Forbes, a young woman abandoned by her lover and left with no means of support. Amelia promptly takes Evelyn under her wing, insisting that the young lady accompany her to Egypt, where Amelia plans to indulge her passion for Egyptology.

But when Evelyn becomes the target of an aborted kidnapping and the focus of a series of suspicious accidents and mysterious visitations, Amelia becomes convinced of a plot to harm her young friend. Like any self-respecting sleuth, Amelia sets out to discover who is behind it all. As they enter Egypt they brothers Walter & Radcliff Emerson, who become love interests. The story gets more complicated when Evelyn's cousin shows up with a marriage proposal and a promise to split their grandfather's inheritance.

The mystery is not why you would read this book. It is an entertaining yet educational look at a time period in which men and women were discovering much about the past and moving towards the future. I had read this book back in high school and read many of the series but it's been years since I've read a Peabody mystery. I'm ready to catch back up with this entertaining series.