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    Laughter of Dead Kings
    Laughter of Dead Kings
    Laughter of Dead Kings
    Audiobook9 hours

    Laughter of Dead Kings

    Written by Elizabeth Peters

    Narrated by Barbara Rosenblat

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    “A royal treat….Welcome back, Vicky Bliss!...For readers new to Vicky’s sassy and distinctively smart stories, The Laughter of Dead Kings will mark the start of a beautiful friendship.”

    —Tampa Tribune

     

    New York Times bestselling Grand Master Elizabeth Peters—author of the thrilling fictional exploits of archaeologist Amelia Peabody in the Land of the Pharaohs—brings back beautiful, brainy art expert and sometime sleuth Vicky Bliss for one last adventure in The Laughter of Dead Kings. The incomparable Peters sends Vicky and her colorful entourage racing across modern-day Egypt to investigate the brazen theft of one the ancient desert land’s most priceless treasures. Smart, funny, evocative, and suspenseful, The Laughter of Dead Kings is a fond and fitting farewell to the ever-delightful Vicky…and a superior mystery fit for a King Tutankhamen.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateAug 26, 2008
    ISBN9780061702518
    Author

    Elizabeth Peters

    Elizabeth Peters earned her Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago’s famed Oriental Institute. During her fifty-year career, she wrote more than seventy novels and three nonfiction books on Egypt. She received numerous writing awards and, in 2012, was given the first Amelia Peabody Award, created in her honor. She died in 2013, leaving a partially completed manuscript of The Painted Queen.

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    Reviews for Laughter of Dead Kings

    3.5/5

    22 ratings17 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Today is a sad day Im so bummed this was the last book in the series! Im going to miss John & Vicky & Schmidt! I felt like I knew them so well & If i didnt know better, the stories were real & they are too. Lol going to try the other Peters series & hope it compares to this one!
    • 3/5
      I love Vicky Bliss, though this isn't the best of the series. John is not handled well, and Schmidt seems rather wooden in the first part of the book. On the other hand, who can resist Peters and her madcap desert races, people who seem to be something else and possibly are, and of course the archaeology. Worth it just for the revelation about Schmidt near the end, the feeling of completion, and the unexpected guest appearance of the author...
    • 5/5
      While this may not be the most amazing book MPM has ever written I will always treasure it. It struck me as a thank you to her loyal fans (of which number I humbly count myself). The plot is so outrageous that I absolutely must applaud it. I could accept nothing less from dear Sir John, darling Vickie, and adorable Schmidt. No less a personage than the boy pharaoh himself should intrude on the attentions of our worthy protagonists. Plus I just love reading about Herr Professor Doctor Schmidt playing with his cell phone.
    • 2/5
      Disappointing, to put it kindly. Vicky Bliss deserves better. The bright spots are Peter's dry humor, and a cameo appearance by the author herself. Overall, my impression is that over the course of an excellent career as an author, Peters has actually developed a novel-writing template in Word. In order to release a new novel, her publisher enters the name of 3 characters we haven't seen before, hits the refresh button, and sends the results to the printer. In other words, Peters has gotten predicitble. If you need a Peters fix, I'd suggest going back to one of her earlier works. This novel will leave you unsatisfied.
    • 3/5
      Vicky, John, and Schmidt are all up to their usual tricks, but I didn't fall in love with this book the way I did Street of 5 Moons or Last Train to Memphis.(**Spoiler Alert**)I really hate when authors write themselves into their books, it comes off as so self-indulgent. This example was particularly pointless and galling.
    • 5/5
      This is the first book I've read in Elizabeth Peters' Vicky Bliss series, so I felt a bit like I was coming in at the middle of a conversation. Once I got into the story I enjoyed it immensely. I thoroughly recommend it to fans of Amelia Peabody. Ms. Peters has a wonderful sense of humor that never fails to put a smile on my face and suspense that keeps me engaged and reluctant to put the book down.
    • 3/5
      A Vicky Bliss mystery. It took me a while to get into because I thought I was going to be reading an Amelia Peabody mystery. I had even more trouble because the Bliss mystery was so modernized it hardly felt like part of her series (maybe I missed some transition books that would have carried me along). Nonetheless, the book has touches of Ms. Peters sense of humour so it was an enjoyable read.
    • 5/5
      The 6th book in the Vicky Bliss series, this book is a long time coming. I had long since given up hope that we would see another Vicky book, but here it is. John is still on the good side of the law, or so Vicky hopes. Then, Feisal shows up with the story that King Tut's corpse is missing. All signs point to John, who swears innocence. So, Vicky and John set out to clear his name.
    • 4/5
      I love the Amelia Peabody series so was delighted to find this book in my local library. This was a fun, fast read and contained many of Peters trademarks from the Peabody series, and not just through the Egyptian setting. I particularly liked how she linked the two series and, unlike some of the other reviewers here, loved Peters larcenous cameo. I'll definitely be checking other books in the series out.
    • 1/5
       June's reading group book. Not sure I'll bother again. Mildly entertaining - a museum type (it's never made exactly clear what she does) gets embroiled in the stealing of King Tut's mummy. Yup, it's that outlandish. She sort of solves it, assisted by an antiques dealer who used to the an antiques thief, and who is suspected of having done the deed... Mildly diverting, but it all ends far too neatly, and the loose ends get shoved under the carpet.
    • 1/5
      I can't believe I waited fourteen years to read this book. I normally like Peters, under this name and Barbara Michaels, but this book was disappointing. It desperately needed editing. It was too drawn out, and too boring.
    • 5/5
      Elizabeth Peters is one of the pseudonyms of Barbara Mertz, whose other synonym is Barbara Michaels. Mertz has a PhD in Egyptology, which expliais her fascination with country in many of her books. As Michaels, she writes Gothics. As Elizabeth Peters, she writes 3 series and various stand alones, all of which have in common strong women characters and an equally strong sense of humor. Peters is most known for the Amelia Peabody series, about a family of British archaeologists working in Egypt in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The series is very popular and she has written volumes in that series almost to the exclusion of her other two series and stand alones. One of the other series is the Jacqueline Kirby series about a librarian who becomes a romance writer, and the other is the Vicky Bliss series about an art historian working in a museum in Munich, Germany. I'm quite fond of all three series, and have been missing Jacqueline (she gives us librarians a good name) and Vicky. Now, after a hiatus of several years, this book brings back Vicky Bliss.Vicky has been involved with a reformed thief, now dealer in antiquities, John. The two of them, along with her wonderful boss Herr Schmidt, have had a variety of adventures. In this volume, the mummy of King Tut has been stolen and too many people think John must have done it. They are forced to find the mummy to clear his name. Vicky, John, and Schmidt are all terrific characters, and the plot is the usual Peters complexity with a strong sense of the ridiculous.It's nice to have Vicky back! Recommended.
    • 4/5
      A sparkling addition (and finale?) to the Vicky Bliss series. It suffers only by comparison to the divine "Night Train to Memphis" and "Trojan Gold", the two previous books; I suppose the series couldn't maintain that emotional pitch indefinitely. Also, this book seems comparatively short, and doesn't have as much time to develop the plot and involve the reader's sympathies.I was thrilled to be among Vicky, John, Schmidt (particularly Schmidt) and Feisal again; some other old friends make an appearance as well. As always, Schmidt gets all the best scenes.Fans of the Amelia Peabody mysteries will be delighted by some references to the series, as well as the promised revelation of the connection between two of Peters' best-loved characters.Bliss of the finest kind.
    • 3/5
      I loved the earlier Vicky Bliss novels a lot. This one I liked, although mostly because I was happy to see all the characters again. Like a slightly dull weekend with some very dear friends. There was one chapter that had me laughing out loud, but for most of the way this just didn't sparkle for me the way the earlier ones did. Another reader said all the elements are there but somehow they don't quite work, and I have to agree. Its good, but at its best the Bliss series had the effervescence and brightness of classic romantic comedies. This one doesn't. Quite.

      Still worth reading though, especially if you're fond of Schmidt and Vicky and John.
    • 4/5
      The new Vicky Bliss novel. It's been a long wait, but it's worth it.King Tut's mummy has been stolen from his tomb. Vicky's lover "Sir John Smythe" is the obvious suspect, but he's reformed--hasn't he? Now Vicky and John must find the mummy and clear his name. Friends and adversaries old and new help and impede their search. But which is which? And what is John hiding?This has everything one could want in an Elizabeth Peters novel, including some subtle in-jokes and a few surprising revelations.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this installment in the Vicky Bliss series. From the author's introduction (where she explains away the inconsistencies of time with the "current now") to the concluding paragraphs where an explicit connection to the Amelia Peabody series is made and there is a shadowy appearance by Ms. Peters herself. It is all lots of fun (and of course there is a very satisfying conclusion to the Vickie-John romance. The mystery is a good one and I enjoyed reuniting with such characters as Schmidt.
    • 1/5
      I've always loved the Vicky Bliss novels. Now I have no idea why. This one isn't well written and it lacks the sparkling banter of the others. Plus there's an egregious authorial self-insertion and overall it feels like something to make money. This series definitely ended at Night Train to Memphis for me. And probably at Trojan Gold.