Crocodile on the Sandbank: Miss Marple crossed with Indiana Jones by Elizabeth Peters

"This is the first of the Amelia Peabody books. I bought this copy because I'd read my first one until it fell to bits! Amelia is a Victorian English lady of very unusual character. Like all Elizabeth Peters' heroines she is astonishingly brave, open-minded and warm hearted. Becoming well-off if not wealthy on the death of her father she sets off to travel and ends up in Egypt. There she discovers two great passions, the first being archaeology. I find it hard to describe what's so great about these books without giving any of the plot away. But Amelia is no conventional romantic heroine. She is fiery and staunchly independent. She is one of my favourite characters in fiction...."