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THE JACKAL'S HEAD
By: Elizabeth Peters
Avon Books: New York
2002 (PB); Original publication, 1968
Before there was Amelia Peabody, there was Althea
Tomlinson; before there was Radcliffe Emerson, there was John McIntyre. And
before there was Crocodile on the Sandbank, published in 1975, there
was The Jackal’s Head, published in 1968. The similarities extend to
the plot as well as the characters in that the intrepid adventurers travel
to mid 20th Century Luxor and the Valley of the Kings to seek the
lost tomb of Queen Nefertiti—and perhaps even that of her husband, the
“heretic king,” Akhenaton. The intrepid adventurers include Althea, a
headstrong young woman who early on figuratively butts heads with handsome,
muscular and bombastic archaeologist John McIntyre. Shades of Peabody and
Emerson, you say?
But there are significant differences in these two
similar tales. The action takes place, as noted, in modern day Egypt as
opposed to late Victorian times. Althea Tomlinson (aka Tommy) is the
daughter of the late Jake Tomlinson, a swashbuckling, ne’er-do-well
archaeologist who died, perhaps by his own hand, in disgrace for trading in
fake Egyptian artifacts. Tommy has been summoned to Egypt in a mysterious
letter from her father’s old reis, or headman of her late father’s
excavation crew. Abdelal’s letter hints at revelations that might clear her
father of the accusations made against him, and Tommy, far from being
wealthy, is fortuitously able to secure a job as travel companion to the
teenage daughter of a very wealthy, Sam Block, an American collector of
Egyptian antiquities. The grand tour includes Luxor, the site of her
father’s fall from grace and the home of the elderly reis. In so
doing, she must inevitably meet up once again with the hero of her
adolescent dreams, John McIntyre, her father’s partner—and the man who blew
the whistle on Jake Tomlinson’s fake artifact racket!
With emotions ratcheted up to fever pitch, events
suddenly turn deadly when the adult son of Abdelal is seriously injured
under mysterious circumstances in the Valley of the Kings. His father had
died under similarly sinister circumstances prior to Tommy’s arrival in
Egypt and the son had hinted at knowledge of his father’s secret. It
becomes apparent that there is more than just the possible vindication of
Jake Tomlinson at hand, but the very real possibility of the existence of a
here-to-for unknown (to the world of archaeology, at least) royal
tomb—perhaps the tomb of Nefertiti and Akhenaton! It is also apparent that
there are shadowy figures (perhaps the chief of whom is John McIntyre
himself) who will stop at nothing—including killing Tommy—to secure the
royal treasures for themselves.
This is an entertaining read for several reasons—the
suspense, the romance (for this is an Elizabeth Peters romance novel,
after all) and the foreshadowing of the wonderful Amelia Peabody series
waiting in the wings. The Jackal’s Head is almost totally lacking in
humor, one of the great strengths of the Peabody series, but Elizabeth
Peters already showed a wonderful talent for evoking a time and place—in
this case, 1960s Luxor, which was then a smaller, sleepier version of its
present bustling, hyper-tourism-driven persona.
Two trowels for this early Peters effort.
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