Mysteries

So charmed was I by Elizabeth Peters’ “The Ape Who Guards the Balance” (Amelia Peabody Mystery, Avon Twilight, 384 pages, $24) that I spent most of the last month devouring her previous Amelia Peabody Mysteries. Set in turn-of-the-last-century Egypt, the series details the adventures of Amelia P. Emerson and her deliciously eccentric family: Radcliffe Emerson, her sexy archeologist husband; Ramses, their lethal weapon of a son; and Nefret, their exquisite ward (formerly a high priestess of Isis). In this outing, Amelia (who is reminiscent of E.F. Benson’s singular character Lucia) is in London preparing for excavation season when she attends one of Mrs. Pankhurst’s demonstrations for female suffrage. Amelia thinks she spies her old foe, Sethos, known as the Master Criminal, and thus is not surprised when the rally turns out to be a cover for a robbery of Egyptian antiquities.

After an attempted abduction, the Emersons depart for Port Said, then Cairo and Luxor, where a reader is treated to so much local color that I felt as though I was on vacation. Ramses discovers a rare papyrus, and sooner or later a corpse turns up in the Nile, looking as though it was eaten by a crocodile, even though there are no crocodiles in the area. Actually, the mystery part of the book is a bit convoluted, but I was so gleefully lapping up period details and reveling in the Emersons’ personal problems that I didn’t particularly care.

*

Former CNN reporter Sparkle Hayter’s “The Last Manly Man” (William Morrow, 260 pages, $22) also has an engaging, preternaturally sharp heroine and an intriguing backdrop. Sleuth Robin Hudson, a reporter for a CNN-like station, is working on a feature about the man of the future when she encounters a confused older gentleman wearing a hat. Thinking it’s just another incidence of her Alzheimer’s-finder karma (in the past, she has helped many an elderly victim find his or her way home), Hudson intervenes. The gentleman disappears, leaving Hudson holding his hat, and before you can say, “Too much of a coincidence,” she is helping animal rights activists track down some missing Bonobo chimps, a rare species of highly libidinous female-dominated primates. Oh, yes, and solving a murder too.

“I have a curse on my head,” Hudson frets. “I could be living the pastoral life a zillion miles from everyone but a few slow-witted chickens and a cow, and a dead body would probably drop on me out of the sky.”

The author’s quips about male-female relationships are a kick, and the behind-the-scenes look at a television news network and the crazies who inhabit it are realistic and involving. But if you’re looking for a plot that makes any kind of sense, look elsewhere.

*

My vote for best airplane book of the month goes to the breezy “Four to Score” by Janet Evanovich (Stephanie Plum Novel, St. Martin’s Press, 294 pages, $23.95). Bounty hunter Plum, who works in Jersey for her cousin Vinnie (give me a break), is assigned to bring in Maxine Nowicki, a waitress who jumped bail after stealing her sleazy former boyfriend’s car. Plum expects the job to be a no-brainer until she discovers that Maxine’s apartment has been trashed and her nearest and dearest are strangely accident-prone and unwilling to talk. But not to worry: Our plucky heroine has plenty of charismatic help, what with a transvestite decoder, a pistol-packing grandma and a sexy cop whom Plum is trying not to sleep with because he’s not sure he’s committed enough to buy a pack of condoms.

Refreshingly, Plum--whose Hungarian mother wants her to be more like her sister Valerie, who’s married and has two kids and knows how to cook a chicken--is rather normal for a sleuth: Though not a rocket scientist, she’s also not irritatingly reckless or a depressive. This novel won’t keep you on the edge of your seat, but it’s fast-paced, and the denouement is surprising.

*

The Times reviews mysteries every other week. Next week: Rochelle O’Gorman Flynn on audio books.