ELIZABETH PETERS was born and brought up in Illinois and earned her PhD in Egyptology from the University of Chicago’s famed Oriental Institute. She is a prolific and successful novelist with over fifty novels to her credit and is internationally renowned for her mystery stories, especially those featuring indomitable heroine Amelia Peabody. Mrs Peters lives in a historic farmhouse in Frederick, Maryland, with six cats and two dogs.

Praise for Elizabeth Peters’
Amelia Peabody novels

‘Dastardly deeds, whirlwind romances, curious mummies and all
the fun and intrigue of Egyptian excavations, with a heroine
who wields a sturdy parasol rather than a magnum.
Accomplished entertainment.’
Guardian

‘Between Amelia Peabody and Indiana Jones, it’s Amelia –
in wit and daring – by a landslide.’
New York Times Book Review

‘The doughtiest, smartest, most appealing female
protagonist in mystery fiction.’
Aaron Elkins, author of Make No Bones

‘If Indiana Jones were female, a wife and a mother who lived in
Victorian times, he would be Amelia Peabody Emerson.’
Publishers Weekly

‘Amelia Peabody Emerson, archaeologist extraordinaire, and
arguably the most potent female force to hit Egypt since
Cleopatra, is digging in again!’
Philadelphia Enquirer

‘Shines with charm and wit . . . and the winsome
personality of Amelia Peabody.’
Chicago Sun-Times

Titles in this series currently
available from Constable & Robinson Ltd

Crocodile on the Sandbank
First Amelia Peabody mystery

The Curse of the Pharaohs
Second Amelia Peabody mystery

The Mummy Case
Third Amelia Peabody mystery

Lion in the Valley
Fourth Amelia Peabody mystery

The Deeds of the Disturber
Fifth Amelia Peabody mystery

The Last Camel Died at Noon
Sixth Amelia Peabody mystery

The Snake, the Crocodile and the Dog
Seventh Amelia Peabody mystery

The Hippopotamus Pool
Eighth Amelia Peabody mystery

Seeing a Large Cat
Ninth Amelia Peabody mystery

The Ape Who Guards the Balance
Tenth Amelia Peabody mystery

The Falcon at the Portal
Eleventh Amelia Peabody mystery

Thunder in the Sky
Twelfth Amelia Peabody mystery

Lord of the Silent
Thirteenth Amelia Peabody mystery

The Golden One
Fourteenth Amelia Peabody mystery

Children of the Storm
Fifteenth Amelia Peabody mystery

Guardian of the Horizon
Sixteenth Amelia Peabody mystery

Tomb of the Golden Bird
Eighteenth Amelia Peabody mystery

THE SERPENT ON
THE CROWN

Elizabeth Peters

ROBINSON

London

Constable & Robinson Ltd
55–56 Russell Square
London WC1B 4HP
www.constablerobinson.com

First published in the USA by William Morrow,
an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 2005

First UK edition published by Constable, an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd 2005

Copyright © MPM Manor, Inc. 2005, 2006

All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in
Publication Data is available from the British Library

ISBN-13: 978-1-84529-268-3
ISBN-10: 1-84529-268-5
eISBN: 978-1-78033-770-8

Printed and bound in the EU

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

To Salima Ikram

I have robbed their nostrils of the breath of life
and made the dread of you fill their hearts.
My serpent on your brow consumed them.

– The Poetical Stela of Thutmose III

Acknowledgements

I am indebted, as so often before, to my official and unofficial editors – Jennifer Brehl of Morrow, Kristen Whitbread of MPM Manor, Dennis Forbes of KMT, and George B. Johnson. It is impossible for mere mortals, even those as talented as the above-mentioned, to attain perfection; but thanks to them, I believe I’ve managed to eliminate the most egregious of the little lapses that marked the first draft. Any remaining goofs are my responsibility, not theirs. I can’t imagine what I would do without them.

Informed readers will spot various Egyptological jokes. Dennis Forbes is responsible for what I consider the most entertaining of these: the unexpected appearance of a certain golden statuette.

The translation of Thutmose III’s Poetical Stela is based on that of Miriam Lichtheim in her indispensable Ancient Egyptian Literature.