I first discovered this series when I spotted The Hippopotamus Pool 
on the "new books" shelf at the Claxton, Georgia library.  Once I 
read it I was hooked, and began searching the shelves for any other 
books by Ms. Peters.  I soon discovered that I had started with the 
EIGHTH book in the Amelia Peabody mysteries and made sure that 
I "devoured" the rest in chronological order.  

It was highly entertaining watching the Emersons as their little 
family of Egyptologists developed and grew through each 
archaeological season.  And their encounters with the plots of 
Sethos, the Master Criminal and his erstwhile cohort, Bertha, always 
provide high adventure and mystery.

The 14th (I think that's the right number...I lose count) addition to 
the series, The Golden One, is still in hardcover and is the only one 
I haven't read yet.  The previous book, Lord of the Silent, takes 
place during the 1915-1916 archaeological season (as closely as I can 
place it), pretty much during the middle of World War I.  So there 
are both spies AND antiquity thieves to deal with.  I was up until 3 
am finishing the book, which gets its title from one of the 
sobriquets for the Egyptian deity Amon-Re.

"Amon, King of the Gods, Lord of the Silent who comes at the voice of 
the poor...who gives bread to him who has none...father of the 
orphan, husband of the widow...though the servant offends, he is 
merciful." -- Epithets and attributes of Amon-Re, a composite from 
various prayers  <-- found on the page just before the Foreword 
of "Lord of the Silent"

Elizabeth Peters also writes under the pen name Barbara Michaels.