2.5*

Susan O'Malley did a good job with the narration but I found Vicky Bliss fairly annoying, especially in her manner of interacting with her colleague Tony (who was even more irritating!). ( )

This was a 3.5 star read for me. It was better than the last Elizabeth Peters I read but still had some weird feminist issues (trying to be feminist but not entirely succeeding). The mystery was fun and I always love how the supposed supernatural elements are played out. I thought I had read some Vicky Bliss novels before but this one didn't sound familiar so maybe it was before I was OCD about reading book 1's first. I would read more of this series. ( )

Utterly typical Elizabeth Peters novel. A history lesson thrown in, a nonsensical detective plot, a fake supernatural element, a fairly obvious villain, an exciting denouement, an escape from an underground trap, a "romance". ( )

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. ( )

Perhaps a bit dated, but the mystery and suspense is decent and I am a sucker for the art history aspect of this series. Unlikely and sometimes annoyingly self-deprecating heroine- how likely is a blonde bombshell medievalist? ( )