Amelia Peabody

[Frelga]

Ugh, you guys, my reading queue is long enough.

[Jude]

What's in your current reading queue?

[Frelga]

The Physician is my current project, in parallel with The Science of Discworld
The Black Count
Red Mars
Zealot
The History of Histories
Whatever it was that I got for Kindle when they had a sale, two or three books
The Bourne Trilogy is on the way
Plus sporadic rereads of Pratchett, currently Hogfather.
I've been reading The Key to Rebecca, but it got a bit much for me. I also started Redwall, but didn't get very far.

There was more...

[Impenitent]

I've got Red Mars in paperback sitting on my bedside table (along with 5 or 6 additional conventional books) but I seem to find ways to avoid paper reading material and have therefore yet to get to them. I think it's because they're heavier to carry in my bag everywhere I go.

It's true. I've converted to digital.

[Jude]

Supposedly a posthumous book, "The Painted Queen", is due to be released this month. But all I can find on amazon is the large print edition.

Is it normal for a large print edition to be released before the regular one?

[Inanna]

All I can find is that it is available for pre-order at $27!! So not happening.

[CosmicBob]

There seems to be a discrepancy in the release date.

https://www.amazon.com/Painted-Queen-LP ... ia+peabody

The headline says "July 15, 2017" and the little details further down say: "July 5, 2016". Clearly we're past that date.

I'm dubious this will ever come out, since it's been talked about even before she died. Unless she as someone like Christopher Tolkien working on her posthumous papers, then I don't think we'll see it.

Did anyone read "21" by Patrick O'brien? The last in the Aubrey/Maturian series. That was another posthumous release of an unfinished work. Half the book had been typeset and the last part of it was reproduced manuscript, which was pretty cool, but hard to read. His handwriting wasn't as bad as Tolkien's, but it was still hard to figure out.

[Jude]

The posthumous Amelia Peabody book seems to be official now, since it's on her website:

Final Amelia Book Due to Publish in 2017!

WE ARE EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE THAT HARPER-COLLINS HAS NOW ACCEPTED A FINISHED VERSION OF “THE PAINTED QUEEN” – a manuscript partially written by Elizabeth Peters and finished by her dear friend, mystery writer Joan Hess, with help from another dear friend, Egyptologist Salima Ikram.

Incidentally, "The Laughter of Dead Kings" in the Vicky Bliss series has some additional information about the Emersons.

[Inanna]

Oh cool.

Yes - I read that. It was fun. Especially the comments about descendants.

[Jude]

So there are only two more Elizabeth Peters books left that I haven't read yet. At least, until the posthumous one comes out.

Once I've read those, where will I find another mystery writer with the same quirky sense of humour?

[Inanna]

Which ones? I found one I hadn't read - Barbara Michael's "Witch".

[Inanna]

You will re-read. I just read 7-8 of the Barbara series. Now I'm re-reading Kirby.

[Jude]

I still have to read "Copenhagen Connection" and "The Love Talker".

Actually, you just reminded me that I still have many Barbara Michaels books to read.

[Inanna]

There you go. They do get a bit dark for me - after reading 4-5 in a row, I need a break.

[Jude]

There's been a lot of speculation about this, but the posthumous book is now on amazon and listed as available on 25 July:

The Painted Queen on amazon.ca

Egypt, 1912—Amelia Peabody and her dashing archeologist husband, Radcliffe Emerson, are once again in danger as they search for a priceless, stolen bust of legendary Queen Nefertiti and Amelia finds herself the target of assassins in this long-awaited, eagerly anticipated final installment of Elizabeth Peters’ bestselling, beloved mystery series.

There's a lot more in the link I posted, but I stopped reading there for fear of spoilers.

[Frelga]

So that's filling in some blanks? Because I know the series has gone past 1912 - to 1917, at least, IIRC.

[Inanna]

I actually read the first few pages preview of that on Amazon. Fascinating, as always. There is a co-author listed too.

[Jude]

So I took the plunge and pre-ordered The Painted Queen. Anyone else?

I've now read all the existing Elizabeth Peters books, and am working my way through the Barbara Michaels books. I wish I had discovered her while she was still alive - which actually wasn't all that long ago.

[Inanna]

Yes I pre-ordered it too.

I just finished re-reading all 20 of the Amelia Peabody series. They really are.... idiosyncratic.

[Inanna]

I just finished The Painted Queen. It popped into my Kindle two days ago - a nice surprise.

The book does read like an unfinished draft of Peters'. Too much in some places.