As the 1911 excavation season opens, Amelia and her husband Emerson, the "foremost Egyptologist of this or any other generation," are preparing for their annual archeological expedition. First, however, they celebrate the marriage of Lia, Emerson's niece, to David, the grandson of Emerson's late foreman. Despite David's Egyptian heritage, the union has been blessed by both families. But the happy couple's bliss may be short-lived.

As Amelia's son, Ramses, silently suffers from unrequited love for his stepsister Nefret, he discovers that someone claiming to be David is selling forged Egyptian antiques. Not wanting to worry the bridegroom, Ramses, Amelia and Nefret try to unmask the villain behind the devious conspiracy. In Egypt (where Emerson once again is relegated to the least promising pyramids due to his unfortunate tendency to offend anyone in authority) the plot thickens as mysterious accidents occur at the excavation site.

Matters become further complicated when the family encounters Amelia's nephew, Percy, a pompous, cowardly racist. He is serving in the British army and stationed in Egypt to help suppress the Egyptian nationalist movement. His callous actions will have a lasting impact on all of the Peabody-Emersons.

As always, Elizabeth Peters has struck gold with Amelia, with her cheerfully self-centered first-person narrative. Here she facilitates the decision-making progress regarding who should go to meet the engaged couple when they arrive in London:

Ramses raised his eyes from his plate. "As you like, Mother."
"Now what are you up to?" I demanded.
"I cannot imagine," said my son, "why you should suppose that my ready agreement with your thoughtful suggestion should be taken as an indication of-"
"Quite right," said Emerson, who knew that Ramses was capable of continuing the sentence until subject and verb were buried under an avalanche of subordinate clauses. "I will go in your place."
I had been afraid he would say that. Emerson's accompanying the welcoming committee was one thing; Emerson driving the motorcar, which he would insist upon doing, was quite another. The locals had become used to him, and promptly cleared off the road whenever he took the automobile out. One could not count on the inhabitants of London to be so obliging.

After I had let everyone express his or her opinion, which is the inalienable right of every citizen of a democracy, I informed them of my decision.

Once the scene shifts to Egypt, the story focuses heavily on the younger adults, and the action moves quickly. Without giving away too much of the plot, I will disclose that the resolution of the romantic tension between Ramses and Nefret hinges a little too much on one of those dreaded "Big Misunderstandings," and that the sensible, intelligent Nefret suddenly behaves like a stereotypical Victorian woman with the vapors. This totally alien behavior is even more puzzling given the absence of Nefret's point of view, which was previously gleaned through her letters to Lia. The reader is left with an enigmatic plot turn and a frustrating cliffhanger ending to this story line.

If one is interested in actually solving the mystery (I must admit that, to me, the mystery is secondary to following the characters' antics), I will venture to suggest that the identity of the villain is apparent fairly quickly, but his motives and modus operandi are difficult to discern until the bitter end.

While I raced through The Falcon at the Portal and gasped at some of the plot developments, I cannot in all honesty say that this was my favorite entry in the series. I applaud the recent focus on Ramses and Nefret, whose youth now provides much of the derring-do, but I am afraid that Amelia is becoming too much of a bystander and not enough of an active participant in the mysteries. Even worse, this novel features little to none of the sly hints of hanky-panky between Amelia and her beloved Emerson.

Nonetheless, Amelia is in a class of her own and worthy of recommendation even on an off day. I hope the loose ends from this novel are tied up quickly in the next installment, which I beseech Elizabeth Peters to release with all due haste.

--Susan Scribner