The Serpent on the Crown

Infobox Book
name = The Serpent on the Crown
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = First edition cover for "The Serpent on the Crown"
author = Elizabeth Peters
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = Amelia Peabody mysteries
subject =
genre = Mystery, historical novel
publisher = HarperCollins
release_date = 2005
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 350 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-06-059178-1
preceded_by = Guardian of the Horizon
followed_by = Tomb of the Golden Bird

"The Serpent on the Crown" is the 17th in a series of mystery novels, written by Elizabeth Peters and featuring fictional sleuth and archaeologist Amelia Peabody.

Plot summary

In 1922, the Emersons are excavating at Deir el Medina when a melodramatic visitor delivers a challenge -- and a solid gold ancient statuette -- to them: find out where it came from and why it brings bad luck to its owners. Emerson, of course, doesn't believe in curses, but he does believe someone has robbed a find of historic proportions. When their visitor turns up dead and her stepchildren disappear, everyone except the Emersons believe the murder is a family affair.

Ramses, meanwhile, finds a papyrus which "he" suspects to be of historic importance, and an assistant who is not all he seems.

Title

The book's title is from the Poetical Stela of Thutmose III::"I have robbed their nostrils of the breath of life and made the dread of you fill their hearts. My serpent on your brow consumed them."

ee also

*List of characters in the Amelia Peabody series