The Laughter of Dead Kings: Vicky Bliss, #6 -- Elizabeth Peters

In the foreword, Elizabeth Peters explains "the current now".  That, although Vicky Bliss first appeared in 1973, her adventures are always set in the present -- so the world is thirty-five years older, but Vicky is still in her early thirties.  Fine by me. 

So.  John has continued to keep his word and live an honest life*, running an honest antiques business**.  He and Vicky have continued to be a unit or an item or whatever it is they choose to call it.  (I actually think they choose not to call it anything.)

But, even though he's Mr. Honest now, Crime is never far away.  John's mother's house is burgled and (one would assume coincidentally), KING TUT HAS BEEN STOLEN.  Obviously, John is a Suspect, so obviously, they have to figure out what really happened.  It's off to Egypt again.

The first half of the book wasn't really doing it for me, but then...

SCHMIDT!!!!  SCHMIDT!!!!  HE IS THE AWESOMEST PIECE OF AWESOME EVER AND I'M SO GLAD THAT ELIZABETH PETERS CLEARLY LOVES HIM JUST AS MUCH AS WE ALL DO!!!!  AND HIS NEW OBSESSION ALMOST KILLED ME!!!!

Yep.  That's about all I have to say.  But was it just me, or was the John/Vicky relationship just not as swooneriffic as usual?  (Except for the "three little words" scene towards the end...)  The mystery itself I had figured out pretty early on.  While this one probably won't ever break into my top three (I'll only know for sure after a few more reads), I will say that our darling EP did pull out all the stops at the end and satisfied my fangirl soul to an extent that I never would have thought possible.

Oh, and I just got the aural thingie that CC and Elizabeth were talking about in the comments, like, four books ago.  Ha ha.

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*Or has he?

**Or is it?

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Previously:

1. Borrower of the Night
2. Street of the Five Moons
3. Silhouette in Scarlet
4. Trojan Gold
5. Night Train to Memphis

Comments

[cc]

I think the main lack of swooniness is not EP's fault--it's just that they're already together when they begin, so . . . Where's the tension? Still, not my favorite for other reasons as well (general flatness as I noted before) but what an ending, and truly Schimdt makes up for all possible inadequacies.

[Leila]

I think that was a big part of the lack of tension, but Peabody and Emerson always make me swoon (and not just when Emerson has amnesia, I swear!) even though they're married... Anyway, yeah, it seemed flat to me, too. But the ending really did make up for any problems. The utter coolness of A-Z almost killed me, and EP pulled off the Mysterious Lady bit -- there aren't many authors who could get away with that, I think.

Also, the bit about him wearing the replica of the Ring just made me howl. It was so perfect, somehow, that he would fall in love with those movies.

[Elizabeth]

I attributed the lack of swooniness to the fact John was in a rotten mood for most of the book. (EP has never been shy about putting her character relationships through rough patches.) Under normal conditions, he must bring the swoon regularly--otherwise I think Vicky would have given him the heave.