After listening to Night Train to Memphis (also reviewed on Myshelf, in the book edition) I couldn't help but be a little disappointed that Kathleen Turner didn't reprise her role as Vicky Bliss in Laughter of Dead Kings. She was so perfect as the frantic heroine in love a la Romancing the Stone. That being said, Barbara Rosenblat is hands-down my favorite reader. I choose audiobooks based as much on the narrator as I do the author, and I will listen to an unknown author with Ms. Rosenblat at his side. She is the voice of many of Ms. Peters' novels in her various incarnations, such as the Amelia Peabody series, and Stitches in Time.  It never fails that at some point in a Rosenblat narration, I will think to myself something like, "I wonder who is doing the voice of Schmidt?" and then remember it really is just ONE person convincing me that all of these people are real.

It is a madcap race around Europe and Egypt with Vicky, John, and Schmidt, on a search for the body of Tutankhamen, taken from its resting place in the Valley of the Kings in broad daylight. The good guys, the bad guys, poor little Vicky, everybody except Herr Doktor Professor Schmidt, all think John did it or at least knows where the body is. Once again John has to save a treasure to save his reputation, and again Vicky wants nothing more than to believe him, and one more time Schmidt (God bless him) pays for the caper and for Vicky a new wardrobe.

The most exciting parts for me were the visit to the FEPEA house and a peek at the treasure the future holds, provided by the strange visitor near the end of the story. With a little Sci-Fi and Fantasy twist (think Number of the Beast by Robert Heinlein), Elizabeth Peters lets us know that she isn't through with antiquities yet and that there will be a story or two more for Ms. Rosenblat to tell us. Dare we hope for three?