Author: Elizabeth Peters
Narrator: Susan O'Malley
Series: Vicky Bliss Mysteries (Book 1)
Publication: Blackstone Audio (March 4, 2004)
Length: 6 hours and 52 minutes
Description: Meet art historian Vicky Bliss. She is as beautiful as she is brainy--with unassailable courage, insatiable curiosity, and an expertise in lost museum treasures that often leads her into the most dangerous of situations.
A missing masterwork in wood, the last creation of a master carver who died in the violent tumult of the sixteenth century, may be hidden in a medieval German castle in the town of Rothenburg. The prize has called to Vicky Bliss, drawing her and an arrogant male colleague into the forbidding citadel and its dark secrets. But the treasure hunt soon turns deadly. Here, where the blood of the long forgotten damned stains ancient stones, Vicky must face two equally perilous possibilities. Either a powerful supernatural evil inhabits this place. . .or someone frighteningly real is willing to kill for what Vicky is determined to find.
My Thoughts: Vicky Bliss is a historian who also happens to be a tall, pretty and very smart person. She also has decided opinions. When she and her boyfriend Tony discover clues to a potential lost work of art, they both decided to try to find it - separately, and with a strong sense of competition.
Their quest takes them to a German castle recently opened as a hotel and the various guests there. The innkeeper is the current owner of the castle, a lovely and delicate young woman named Irma. Her aunt and her aunt's companion are also resident in the castle. Among the other guests are a German doctor, an American adventurer, and a mysterious older man named Schmidt.
The story was very atmospheric. There was a strong sense of history as Vicky tries to learn more about the missing masterwork and the people involved with its disappearance. There were dusty tombs, secret passages, wandering ghosts and an animated suit of armor to add Gothic detail.
The story was first published in 1973 and, except for the potential value of the lost masterwork, didn't feel particularly dated. The number of smokers and lack of cell phones were the major clues that it wasn't a contemporary story.
I like Vicky's feminism and competence and enjoyed this mystery.
Favorite Quote:
He's about as sly as Christopher Robin. His tone and prompt acquiescence told me all I needed to know about where Tony was going to spend his summer.I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.
One of my favourite books by a favourite writer. Back in 73, the ending brought gales of laughter.
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