She writes murder mysteries that are set in Egypt, in the Victorian era.
Her heroine is a Victorian lady called Amelia Peabody, the wife of a famous egyptologist called Emerson Peabody, and they live in England but spend most of their time in Egypt on excavations and expeditions (she is passionate about Egypt too), and there are always plenty of colourful, eccentric characters and a few murders.
Amelia is described as a 'female Indiana Jones', she is brave, outspoken and feisty and it is she who investigates and solves the murders, while her husband busies himself with his work and is sometimes mildly irritated (but in an amused, loving way) by his wife's investigations and interfering with the suspects.
Emerson is also a really amusing character, he is stubborn, and bellows when he talks but doesn't think that he does, and always has to buy new shirts after he takes his own off because he just rips them off without caring and all the buttons fly off.
They are such great books, full of mystery and intrigue and your usual host of strange suspects (I know some people see that as predictable and 'another country house mystery' etc but I love to sit down with a book that's full of murder and a house full of eccentrics).
Her second book, The Curse Of The Pharaohs, is outstanding.
I can't stand all this fluffy 'chick-lit' stuff that fills up every shelf in every bookshop, with their arty-farty covers and tales of 30-something city women trying to find Mr Right, or struggling with relationships - I would much rather read a good old murder mystery or a non-fiction book about foreign lands or wildlife!
