Rating: 
Summary: Will Ramses and Nefret never be happy ?
Review: This is the most suspenseful Amelia Peabody since Crocodile on the Sandbank. I could not put it down. But I have to admit the cliffhanger ending was frustrating and I hope Ms. Peters will have pity on her readers and with her characteristic humor bring happiness to the young protagonists in her next book. I don't know how much more of this I can take!
Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: I have always trusted Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters, so I did not hesitate to buy the latest Amelia as soon as it hit the shelf. I didn't think she could write a bad book. I was wrong. In a recent article in Crescent Blues, Peters said: "if characters are properly drawn ... they have firm personality traits that cannot be changed to suit my convenience or that of the plot." Yet changing personality traits to fit a contrived plot is exactly what Peters has done here. I have read the Amelia series several times, but in "The Falcon at the Portal" I don't know who these people are. From the beginning Amelia & Co. seem like wooden parodies of themselves. Amelia has been suffering in the last two volumes. Here, she provides little but commentary and some amazingly uncharacteristic actions. Can you imagine the original daring, impetuous, Amelia resentfully staying home to furnish a new house while her beloved spouse plumbs the depths of a pyramid - however dull? And then maundering on - if only to herself - about how she had done her duty? No. The real Amelia would cry "The Devil with Duty!" and be the first underground. Would the mighty Emerson of yore, who never let murder, mayhem, or amnesia interfere with his excavations, tamely shut down his dig for DAYS so the house could be decorated for Christmas? Please. (These are not spoilers, only details. With spoilers, I could go on at length.) Since "Seeing a Large Cat" this series has been going down hill, but the elder Emersons are not the only ones to suffer. Peters appears incapable of dealing with the younger generation with the same integrity with which she (once) did their parents. Perhaps she, also, still thinks of them as children. David is dull, Lia still only a foil. Ramses manages to remain somewhat intact and finally even opens up a bit (the one bright spot in this book) but his actions are utterly incomprehensible. But I knew we were in real trouble when - from the first few pages - I could see that Peters was re-writing Nefret's character. Until now, Nefret has been an intelligent, capable, warm-hearted girl showing every promise of becoming "a woman of character." Now she is moody, reckless, mercurial, and occasionally vindictive. After three chapters I thoroughly disliked her. She acts like a brainless heroine in a bodice-ripper gothic romance - Ramses should drop this Nefret like a hot brick. These are not the same people we have been reading about for years, and too much time is spent trying to convince us otherwise. Comments like "It would be surprising if he had acted differently" and "she had always been that way" are liberally sprinkled throughout. I will always be grateful to Michaels/Peters for the impressive body of work that she has given us to this point, but she is too fine, and too experienced, a writer to have done this.
Rating: 
Summary: Heartbreaking [spoiler]
Review: Amelia and Emerson are two of the most entertaining characters in the mystery world. Peters has done a great job in the series by introducing a new generation and letting both generations grow up. I applaud her deterity in making Ramses and Nefret as interesting as they are, and by adding a new, much younger character, Sennia, who can continue the series into the 20th century. That said, I was heartbroken at what the plot imposed on Ramses in this story. While much has been made of Nefret's impetuosity of character, the books have always shown her to regain her composure in a relatively brief time. It was out of character for her to lose control over the extended period of time it would take to hare off and marry someone else. I thought it was a very interesting departure from the expected, just from a technical writing standpoint, but overall unsatisfactory as it was a false note for Nefret. Ramses has been an outstanding character from the get-go, and his relationship with his parents has grown up, as has he. In prior books he has not always believed in his parents' love for him; it was wonderful to see that they believed in him when Nefret did not. However, the emotional pain he was put through spoiled the book for me (I scarcely paid any attention to the plot after page 245, wanting to see this great wrong righted). Stringing the Ramses/Nefret situation out in prior books added the right note of romantic suspense (thank goodness Peters didn't go through another round of the jealousy game with Amelia and Emerson!), but Nefret's marriage to Geoffrey is a stunningly out-of-tune touch from a usually highly skilled composer. I hope that this matter is resolved satisfactorily, through the bravery and good sense of Ramses and Nefret, in the next book. (And with lots of romantic details; poor Ramses deserves it!)
Rating:
Summary: Torturous Ending!
Review: I just finished reading Ms. Peter's latest book, and as Amelia would say, my mind is in a rather anxious state. The plot was good, and I can't say that I have ever been rooting for a villain to be unmasked as much as I did in this book. Like many other readers, I was disappointed in Nefret's actions, but it was one of the reasons I couldn't put the book down. I kept waiting for Ramses and Nefret to be reconciled-at least partially reconciled-a little reconciled? The torture is too much- I want them together.
Rating:
Summary: Victoriana and Egyptology collide!
Review: I wait eagerly for books by Ms Michaels/Peters who has been my favorite author since Ammie Come Home in 1970. In Falcon at the Portal, Ms Peters continues to deliver the unexpected twists and turns which characterize her Amelia Peabody series. As the book nears its climax, the reader fully expects the Ramses/Nefret conflict to be solved as they declare their passion for each other. Nefret acts uncharacteristically Victorian as Ramses is caught in a net of misinformation and deliberate deception, thus setting the stage for at least one more book in this popular series. Famous characters tumble in and out of Amelia's drawing room and, as always, her quick wit and her passion for Emerson make for lively reading.
Rating:
Summary: This book is not complete.
Review: I finished this book this morning and I have been feeling frustrated about it all day. I love the Emersons and I have read all of Elizabeth Peters' books, but this one is only one-half a book. So much of the story is left unresolved that I wish I had waited until the next book came out to read this one. I would have saved money as well by buying a paperback. I know all the Emerson family stories continue, but this one was truly only part of a book. I enjoyed it, but I feel irritated with the author for leaving her loyal fans hanging to this degree.
Rating:
Summary: I can't stop thinking about this story
Review: I've awaited the publication of this latest installment of the Amelia series with intense anticipation and pleasure. I love the humor and history of the series, love the characters and their quirky interactions and verbal sparring, and am, frankly, besotted with Ramses. Through the series, I've watched the lad grow from being a precociously independent, eccentric and original child character into an intense, complex, intriguing and magnetic young hero. The emotional impact of Falcon at the Portal is stunning and its affect especially on Ramses is hard to take. I read it in mere hours and once finished could not stop thinking about what had happened. I had not expected such heart-rending, hand-wringing, lip-biting suspense and pathos in a series that I had come to think of as a delightfully light and charming read. The charm is still there, though the lightness is not so much in evidence. I've always held out hopes that Nefret would evolve into a much more intriguingly eccentric character given her exotic background and the story would play off the juxtaposition of her unconventional upbringing and her present status as a rich, young Englishwoman. But, alas, she has always fallen just short of what I had hoped. In this story, she even takes a few steps backward by making a reckless and drastic decision that did not ring true to the character I thought I knew. I hold out the hope that the very talented Ms. Peters knows what she's doing with this wonderful series and these much-loved characters and will surprise and please us with plot twists and turns in the next book (let it come soon!) that satisfyingly illuminate and explain why Nefret acted as she did. Even with my few quibbles about motivation, I loved the story and highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Super book
Review: I rarely read mysteries, I prefer novels like THE TRIUMPH AND THE GLORY, or Oprah's books, or even the occaisional Grisham book, but Elizabeth Peters is such a wonderful tellewr of tales and plots her mysteries so superby that I simply Can't help but read her.
Rating:
Summary: Peters' excellent series just gets better
Review: In her lates mystery, Falcon at the Portal, Elizabeth Peters again captures our imagination with the Family of Egyptologists, but now the political activities of the era exert more influence on the family and their friends. It is a more serious work than some of the others, but truly a wonderful read.
Rating:
Summary: Good Job!
Review: Ms. Peters is one of my favorite author's, and this book is really one of her best. THE FALCON AT THE PORTAL is a real treat to those of us who have been reading this series, though I would like to question some of the charactors actions. PLEASE DON'T KEEP US WAITING!
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