Seeing a Large Cat

Infobox Book
name = Seeing a Large Cat
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Cover for the first edition of "Seeing a Large Cat"
author = Elizabeth Peters
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = Amelia Peabody mysteries
subject =
genre = Mystery, Historical novel
publisher = Warner Books
release_date = 1997
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = ix, 386 p.
isbn = ISBN 0-446-51834-4
preceded_by = The Hippopotamus Pool
followed_by = The Ape Who Guards the Balance

"Seeing a Large Cat" is the ninth mystery novel in the Amelia Peabody mystery series by Elizabeth Peters. The story takes place during the season of 1903-1904.

Plot summary

The book opens at Amelia's favorite hotel, Shepheard's in Cairo, where her family reunites after a summer in various locations. The Emersons' son Ramses (now aged sixteen) and their adopted son David have been living in Egypt for six months, and their ward Nefret has been studying anatomy at the University of Edinburgh.

The Emersons receive a dire warning about staying away from an undiscovered tomb, which of course inspires them to hunt all the harder for it. Meanwhile, a silly American debutante insists she needs protection from a stalker (selecting Ramses for the job), and a mummy swathed in modern clothing begins to lend verisimilitude to her otherwise unconvincing narrative.

The characters of Donald and Enid Fraser from "Lion in the Valley" reappear in this novel. They are in Cairo, accompanied by a woman who claims to have communicated with an ancient Egyptian princess and unwittingly triggered Donald's obsession with finding the princess's tomb. The American Cyrus Vandergelt is another character who reappears from an earlier novel.

This volume marks the death of the cat Bastet and the first whiskey Ramses is permitted to imbibe (although the two events are not directly related).

The device of "Manuscript H" is used for the first time in this book to give a voice to Ramses, through whom the romantic and adventurous elements of the series are able to continue as his parents begin to age.

In the course of the mystery, Amelia discovers that her old admirer and adversary, Sethos (the "master criminal") is not dead, as was thought to be the case earlier in the series.

ee also

*List of characters in the Amelia Peabody series