Amelia Peabody Emerson

Amelia is the narrator and heroine of the story. She is a woman in her twenties, perhaps early thirties, who is petite, attractive, and deeply in love with her husband, Emerson. Amelia and Emerson have been married five years, and this novel is the second in a long series of the Emerson family travels and travails as Egyptologists. Although their permanent home is in England, their hearts belong in Egypt where they pursue their vocation as archaeologists in the tombs of the ancient Egyptians.

Amelia is a strong, independent woman, who is methodical, analytical, and looks down on women who perpetuate the myth of a weaker sex. She does not downplay her intelligence or submit to any behavior which would present her as a frivolous, simpering female. She chose the field of archaeology when she was a teenager and did not allow the societal restrictions of...