bookshelves of doom

CC on Elizabeth Peters.

Elizabeth Peters Week continues!

If you've been meaning to get in on the action, NOW IS THE TIME. As I've received so many lovely contributions (I'm still taking them, but only through today!), I've been running some of the longer ones over the course of the week, and I'll be posting the rest and linking everything up tomorrow.

I should begin by admitting that I’m a little bit irrational about Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels. I’ll go even farther than Leila and say that I refuse to admit that her opera omnia has flaws. I’m not militant about it, but it’s not a discussion I can have.

Ever since Leila brought up the subject, I’ve been turning over what I could write about and coming up with zilch—not for lack of material, mind you, but because I was swamped. How much do I love Sir John? How I love that Peabody goes to Egypt for me (since I hate travel, sand and sun)? That her heroines range from gorgeous, naïve Damaris Gordon to gentle, middle aged ladies like Ruth Bennet?

Then I decided I was going to talk about how her heroines tend to have jobs that matter to them, but it turns out that thinking about this when you’ve been unemployed for eight months is a terrible idea.

So I think I will just leave it at this: I love the work that Elizabeth Peters has done for the last forty years so much that it destroys my critical judgment and undermines my moral faculties. You see, when Leila moved back to Maine . . . I deliberately hid all her double copies of EP/BM books that I didn’t own yet myself.* Which (I recognize in a hazy kind of way) is actually theft.**

There you have it. Huge fan. (Terrible person maybe, but huge fan.)

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*Full disclosure: I also did this with the Joan Aiken books.

** Seriously though? Even if they’re identical editions?

CC is CC, and I am as irrational about her as she is about Elizabeth Peters.

Naked Once More: Jacqueline Kirby, #4 -- Elizabeth Peters

Elizabeth Peters Week continues!

If you've been meaning to get in on the action, NOW IS THE TIME. As I've received so many lovely contributions (I'm still taking them, but only through today!), I've been running some of the longer ones over the course of the week, and I'll be posting the rest and linking everything up tomorrow.

So here we are, at the end—unless Elizabeth Peters decides to revisit the character—of the Jacqueline Kirby series. Due to the success of her books—you never doubted that she'd make the bestseller list, did you?—she quit her job as a librarian and is a full-time writer.

Although her new celebrity status is great for her (already healthy) ego, she's been feeling discontent lately, and has been thinking seriously about packing it all in, getting out of the public part of the writing game and moving to the country. But that's before she ends up on the shortlist to write a sequel to Naked in the Ice, a brilliant work of historical romance written by Kathleen Darcy, who tragically disappeared seven years ago and is presumed dead by suicide.

Before long, Jacqueline is holed up Kathleen Darcy's hometown of Pine Grove—I know that you didn't doubt that she'd get the gig—and before long, she's convinced that Kathleen Darcy was a victim of Foul Play. Not only that, but she's starting to get the feeling that whoever got to Kathleen has now set his—or her!—sights on Jacqueline.

Which, OBVIOUSLY, is not a situation that she will let stand.

So, while Die for Love is all about the publishing world from the perspective of an outside observer, Naked Once More is about the publishing world (and about writing) from the perspective of an insider. For that alone, the book is worth reading. And as you'd expect, there are loads of rants and asides and quips about the little irritations and annoyances of the writing life, as well as some great bits along the lines of HELLO, IT'S MY JOB, OF COURSE I'M GOING TO CHARGE YOU FOR AN INTERVIEW. No romantic statements about An Artist And Her Muse from our Ms. Kirby: on that topic, she's wonderfully dry and cynical. Also, at one point Jacqueline lists off a list of 'Great Authors', and it goes something like: Mark Twain, Jane Austen, Barbara Michaels... AHAHAHAHAHA!

Since Jacqueline is on her own this time—no Watson character, and a whole lot of solitude—Naked Once More is a much more sedate read than Die for Love, more introspective (well, as introspective as this series gets), and it's got far fewer farcical scenes and elements. It actually has a much more Gothic feel, what with the cast of characters and Kathleen Darcy's mysterious disappearance and the adventures by moonlight and the decaying buildings and the various ongoing personal dramas going on in town. Of course, none of those divergences from the usual formula stops the book from ending in the traditional fashion: with Jacqueline bossing all of the suspects into sitting down and shutting up while she lectures them about How She Figured It All Out.

I love her. I love her curiosity and her love of knowledge and her love of food, I love that she can pick up a book and lose an entire day, I love that she is equally comfortable drinking beers and shooting pool with a small town's ex-sheriff as she is swigging martinis in a swanky NYC establishment with the literati. I love that she's a walking contradiction: super no-nonsense, but prone to being silly; capable of being steely and tough, but also capable of genuine warmth, and of comforting those in need of comfort; prickly but also eminently likable; one who avoids beating around the bush, but is also capable of being extremely subtle; a huge fan of petty revenge, but... well, there's no opposing behavior there. She's a huge fan of petty revenge, period. I love her. I love her, I love her, I love her.

And now, yet again, I've finished the series... and now, yet again, I'm totally depressed that I've finished the series. Does anyone know of any readalikes? Amelia Peabody readalikes are easy to come by, but what about Jacqueline Kirby readalikes? Anyone?

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Author page.

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Amazon.

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Book source: Personal copy.

I am not comfortable with this project.

From the Guardian:

[Sebastian] Faulks, who is becoming used to slipping into the skin of classic authors, after publishing a bestselling James Bond novel in 2008, was approached by the Wodehouse estate to take on the first ever authorised Wodehouse follow-up. Jeeves and the Wedding Bells, described as "a homage to PG Wodehouse" by the author's estate, will be published on 6 November by Hutchinson, also home to Wodehouse's later novels.

I'm perfectly fine with unauthorized fan fiction (like this and this), but for some reason the idea of an AUTHORIZED Wodehouse sequel is making me twitch.

Can you explain my brain to me? Please?

(Relatedly? My ringtone is currently the Jeeves and Wooster theme song.)

During my commute this morning...

...I was listening to an interview with one of the authors of Big Data, and it made me realize that I'm turning into my father.

Author: If Big Data correlations identify me as a 44-year-old male who's a journalist and who has grand eyes for things I can't afford, it may think that I'm going to be susceptible to embezzlement, and maybe I will get a knock on the door by the police, who say, 'We have reason to believe that you're about to commit a crime.' This is sort of like pre-crime in Minority Report.

Interviewer: Oh, that Tom Cruise movie from a few years back.

Me, bellowing: IT WAS A BOOK FIRST, YOU DINK!

And now I'm all het up.

When I tell him, Dad will be so proud.

Well, either that or he'll tell me that I shouldn't get so worked up about these things.

To which I'll respond: I LEARNED IT FROM WATCHING YOU, DAD. I LEARNED IT FROM WATCHING YOU.

Debra Touchette on her new love for Elizabeth Peters (and Jacqueline Kirby!).

Elizabeth Peters Week continues! 

If you've been meaning to get in on the action, NOW IS THE TIME. As I've received so many lovely contributions (Did I mention that I'm totally still taking them?), I'll be running some of the longer ones over the course of the week, and linking everything up together at the end.

Here's what Debra has to say:

I just discovered these books thanks to your posts, so my love for EP's books is new and raw and exciting and I'm sharing it with everyone I know. And most of the people have already read her books, so I'm being met with that same kind yet glazed look that friends give when you're gushing about a new girl/boyfriend. But I don't care. My love is real and amazing and new and no one can tell me it's not.

I fangirled about The Seventh Sinner at my blog (Library Lass) Adventures in Reading, and I am eternally grateful for the introduction to Elizabeth Peters's world.

And here's a snippet from said blog post:

Jacqueline! The purse! The stare! The sharp tongue! The knitting! The hair! If I could be anyone in the world, it would be a combination of Jessica Fletcher, Evy Carnahan, Flynn Carsen, and Jacqueline Kirby. And I would rule the world.

Debra Touchette blogs at (Library Lass) Adventures in Reading and Guys Lit Wire, and can be found on Twitter at @threelefthands.

Round-up: The ENTIRE Vicky Bliss series.

Elizabeth Peters Week continues!

If you've been meaning to get in on the action, NOW IS THE TIME. As I've received so many lovely contributions (Did I mention that I'm totally still taking them?), I'll be running some of the longer ones over the course of the week, and linking everything up together at the end.

Originally, I'd planned on posting about the fourth (and last, *sob*) Jacqueline Kirby book today, but my real-life schedule interfered. Hopefully, tomorrow! In the meantime, here's a round-up of all of my posts about Vicky Bliss, Elizabeth Peters' art historian extraordinaire (who, of course, is also an amateur sleuth and has an on-again/off-again romance going with a DASHING ART THIEF).

Borrower of the Night: Vicky Bliss, #1:

Vicky, I love you. I love you and Elizabeth Peters. I love you, Elizabeth Peters, and Schmidt, who doesn't have a big enough part in this book. I love you, Elizabeth Peters, Schmidt-who-doesn't-have-a-big-enough-part-in-this-book, and Sir John Smythe, WHO ISN'T IN THIS BOOK. How could that have slipped my mind?  That's probably exactly why I've re-read the other books in the series 40 hundred times, but only read this one, like, 20 hundred times.

Street of the Five Moons: Vicky Bliss, #2:

More reasons to love Vicky: although her physical assets frustrate her in the academic world, she has no problem putting them to good use while investigating crimes -- she giggles and sighs and inhales deeply and men just fall over themselves to give her information. She learned how to pick locks in tenth grade from a boy called Piggy Wilson. She is clearly a huge reader -- not only does she compare John to Wimsey in the above passage, but she's always making and recognizing literary references.

Silhouette in Scarlet: Vicky Bliss, #3:

Make sense? It doesn't matter. We've got Vicky, John, Schmidt, buried treasure and a villain who gives Vicky advice about her love life. Also, Elizabeth Peters is totally aware of the cliches of the genre and mocks them while still using them quite effectively. Who needs sense? Oh, swoon. These books make me almost deliriously happy.

Trojan Gold: Vicky Bliss, #4:

Oh my God, I'd forgotten how much I LOVE THIS BOOK!!

Okay. So, Vicky is minding her own business (as usual), when a bloodstained package arrives for her in the mail. The stain is so large that the return address is obscured. So that's mysterious.

Night Train to Memphis: Vicky Bliss, #5:

And the second half is VERY awesome -- if you haven't realized that Schmidt is the coolest guy ever before reaching this point, it'll happen here. (And if it doesn't, I don't know if we can be friends anymore.  Seriously.) If Schmidt isn't a draw (WHAT??), there're some great moments between John and an old school chum... and yes, OF COURSE between John and Vicky. AND there are a few moments that suggest John's family may be related to the Peabody-Emerson clan.

The Laughter of Dead Kings: Vicky Bliss, #6:

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!!!!

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Author page.

Book Addict Katie on Elizabeth Peters.

Elizabeth Peters Week continues!

If you've been meaning to get in on the action, NOW IS THE TIME. As I've received so many lovely contributions (Did I mention that I'm totally still taking them?), I'll be running some of the longer ones over the course of the week, and linking everything up together at the end.

From BAK's post:

When I was a sixth grader at a small, private school, I was depressed and miserable. I was having a difficult time socially and emotionally and all I ever wanted to do was read. I was obsessed with Ancient Egypt from a very young age, so when my mom saw a paragraph in The Washington Post about a book called The Mummy Case, she took me straight to Borders to pick it up hoping that this outing might brighten my day. Boy, she didn’t know what she was starting!

Read the rest over at her blog!

Colleen Mondor on Amelia Peabody.

As promised, it's going to be All Elizabeth Peters, All the Time this week!

If you've been meaning to get in on the action, NOW IS THE TIME. As I've received so many lovely contributions (Did I mention that I'm totally still taking them?), I'll be running some of the longer ones over the course of the week, and linking everything up together at the end.

It's Amelia that caught my attention first and what got me was not only her independence (which I adored and totally appreciated for the time period) but also that she and Emerson fall in love and get married and have a child and she never changes her independent attitude. She is still the same Amelia he falls in love with and doesn't have to become anyone else's idea of who a woman should be. This was....huge for me.

I started reading the books in college and every girl I knew - ALL OF US - were continuously involved in long discussions about how to get what boy, what we should wear, how we should act and on and on. We changed who we were all the time, we constantly pretended to be who we weren't, we were obsessed with obtaining a mythical romantic relationship that usually involved the girl waiting by the phone all the damn time. And there I would be, reading about Amelia - brilliant as ever, waiting around for no one and still getting the damn guy while she made all sorts of brilliant scholarly discoveries and thwarted the villains. She inspired me, plain and simple, and for all the plot contrivances and anything else folks want to harp on, she still does. 

Colleen Mondor is the author of The Map of My Dead Pilots. She is the driving force behind Guys Lit Wire, blogs at Chasing Ray, and tweets at @chasingray.

Die for Love: Jacqueline Kirby, #3 -- Elizabeth Peters

As promised, it's going to be All Elizabeth Peters, All the Time this week!

If you've been meaning to get in on the action, NOW IS THE TIME. As I've received so many lovely contributions (Did I mention that I'm totally still taking them?), I'll be running some of the longer ones over the course of the week, and linking everything up together at the end.

So now we come to Jacqueline Kirby's third adventure, which OH MY GOD, is right up there with Isaac Asimov's Murder at the ABA and Sharyn McCrumb's Bimbos of the Death Sun. All three are set at conventions for very specific groups—Asimov's at the American Booksellers' Association, McCrumb's at a science fiction convention, and Die for Love is set at a convention for the (fictional) Historical Romance Writers of the World group—and all three hilariously skewer the industry and culture while still managing to be somewhat affectionate as well.

This one came out in 1984, ten years after The Murders of Richard III, but in true Elizabeth Peters form (see the Vicky Bliss series for some especially amazing temporal machinations), it's set in the present day even though it's only been a few years for Jacqueline Kirby. Anyway, she's currently the assistant head librarian at Coldwater College, Nebraska, and she's sick of the rain and the lack of culture and she just needs to GET AWAY, so she decides to swan off to the first literature-related conference that she can find (so she can deduct it on her taxes), which just so happens to be for the Historical Romance Writers of the World.

Once there, she quickly realizes that A) she's going to need a waaaaay more ostentatious wardrobe, as tailored wool suits are NOT de rigueur in this world, B) she's TOTALLY going to start writing romance novels, as it pays WAAAAAAY better than librarianing (assuming that one is on the best-sellers list, which OBVIOUSLY she will be, because SERIOUSLY, HOW HARD CAN IT BE), and C) there is some BAD MOJO going on within the HRWW, what with the blackmail and the graft and the deception and yes, the MURDER.

The murdered: a gossip columnist who was planning on busting the romance world WIDE OPEN.

A very few of the suspects: an obsessed teenaged fan with violent tendencies, an author who is trying to conceal her true identity, an actor who is tired of pretending to be an author, a literary agent with a fake Southern accent and a talent for roping authors into signing terrible contracts, the leader of an anti-romance-novel protest movement, and the Queen of Love herself, the devastatingly beautiful Valerie Valentine.

I can never decide which book in this series is my favorite: Die for Love or The Murders of Richard III. Basically, it always comes down to whichever one I've read the most recently. So, obviously, at the moment, it's Die for Love.

Because, HOLY COW, THE HILARITY.

• When Jacqueline decides to GO FOR IT with her clothes, she GOES FOR IT:

The hat [which has previously been described as being the size of a cartwheel and being covered in flowers and ribbons] now boasted a ruffle of lace five inches wide. It hung down over Jacqueline's eyebrows in front. Amid the flowers and bows on the crown perched a stuffed cockatoo, its molting wings spread. It had one red glass eye. The other was missing.

Understand, THAT'S JUST THE HAT. The outfit (which is lavender) also has a parasol and elbow-length gloves and then later, a huge 'STOP RAPE' button.

• Jacqueline herself is still the Jacqueline we know and love—she breaks into song at inappropriate times, her glasses slide down her nose in moments of heightened emotion, she has a penchant for slipping into Noir Speak when the mood suits her (but is just as likely to start spouting Shakespeare), she loves pretty much all food, but ESPECIALLY if it is expensive and someone else is paying—but unlike the first two books in the series, Die for Love follows her instead of whoever is acting as her Watson. While that change does a bit to lessen her mystique, it also makes her a little more human: her faults are suddenly bit easier to see, and it also becomes clear that at least some small fraction of her confidence is a facade. 

• As for the meta-factor, this one is a DOUBLE WHAMMY. There are the expected references to mystery novels and crime stories (she pulls a Columbo towards the end that is OUTSTANDING and all of her knowledge about ciphers comes from Dorothy Sayers), but there are also a plethora of rants about the romance industry, and it's hard to imagine that Elizabeth Peters wasn't taking the opportunity to get a few jabs in. (Rants include: ghostwriting, rape culture, sketchy agents, crappy convention food, the second-class status of fans... the list goes on and on.)

• Speaking of the romance industry, some of the chapters begin with excerpts of the books she's reading—and later, the book she's writing—and they are LAUGH-OUT-LOUD, NOSEBLEED FUNNY. (Relatedly, I need to take a moment here to recommend My Angelica: read it.)

• Why we love Elizabeth Peters in a nutshell: "Jacqueline had never had any sympathy with heroines of thrillers who clung doggedly and feeblemindedly to the clue that (a) would have solved the case on page 50 if the police had had it, and (b) rendered said heroine vulnerable to kidnapping, assault, and mayhem."

• A whole TON could be written about Jacqueline's love life and what it says about her status as an independent, liberated woman (for what it's worth, I've definitely run across people who complain about her because they don't see her as "nice"), as well as romance as relates to the middle-aged. Due to the relationships she has with the love interest(s) and all of the conversation about romance in literature and conventions of the genre and how they relate to real life, this book is especially great for highlighting all of that. Yes, it's wonderfully zany and funny and entertaining, but there's actually some meaty stuff to think about as well.

Next up: the last one (*sob*) Naked Once More.

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Author page.

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Amazon.

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Book source: Personal copy.

Kate Flaim on Elizabeth Peters.

As promised, it's going to be All Elizabeth Peters, All the Time this week!

If you've been meaning to get in on the action, NOW IS THE TIME. As I've received so many lovely contributions (Did I mention that I'm totally still taking them?), I'll be running some of the longer ones over the course of the week, and linking everything up together at the end.

Here's what Kate has to say:

I somehow stumbled across the Amelia Peabody books in the fall of 2001, when I was living in NYC, temping, sharing an apartment deep in Queens with a quiet roommate and her actually-psychotic cat. I was broke (see: post-September 11, NYC, temping), barely knew anyone, lived a 20 minute walk from the end of the N train, and needed paperbacks I could stash in my purse for the endless commute to various jobs downtown.

Hiding in my room to escape the cat, I devoured all the books that had been published this far, fell in love w/Ramses, and let the witty silliness (especially the early installments) distract me from the very dark times around me. I ended up buying them all on the cheap, and they still eat up a whole shelf--every time I weed my books I think about passing them on, but I think I'll plow through once more first.

Kate is a freelance writer and food blogger: you can find her on Twitter or at her website.

AND... update:

@bkshelvesofdoom You inspired me. Here goes! #ElizabethPeters twitter.com/kateflaim/stat…

— Kate Flaim (@kateflaim) March 3, 2013

The Murders of Richard III: Jacqueline Kirby, #2 -- Elizabeth Peters

As promised, it's going to be All Elizabeth Peters, All the Time this week!

If you've been meaning to get in on the action, NOW IS THE TIME. As I've received so many lovely contributions (Did I mention that I'm totally still taking them?), I'll be running some of the longer ones over the course of the week, and linking everything up together at the end.

And now we come to the book that indirectly prompted the idea of this theme week in the first place! Last month, due to the news about the discovery of Richard III's body, I recommended Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time and Elizabeth Peters' The Murders of Richard III. That conversation led to a whole lot of squeeing over Elizabeth Peters, one thing led to another, and so here we are.

As in The Seventh Sinner, The Murders of Richard III stars Jacqueline Kirby, but she's not the character that the narrator follows: that honor belongs to Thomas Carter, a professor-friend of hers. (Of course, just like every other straight male within a fifteen-mile-radius of Our Ms. Kirby, he'd like to be more than friends, but she's infinitely good at side-stepping THAT sort of conversation.) Anyway, it turns out that Thomas has a semi-secret hobby: he's a member of a Ricardian society devoted to clearing Richard III's name. The group has recently gotten a hold of a letter that, if genuine, will do just that—so he asks Jacqueline Kirby to attend a weekend house party (complete with an authentic medieval feast and costumes!) so that she can take a look at the document and let him know what she thinks.

Once they get there and she meets the rest of the society, she surprises Thomas by being COMPLETELY ECSTATIC:

"Thomas, do you realize what this is? It's an English house party, darling, straight out of all those British detective stories I revel in. These people are classic characters. They couldn't be better if you had invented them. The doctor, the vicar, the village squire; the catty middle-aged hags and the sulky, beautiful young heroine, and the two juveniles—homely and nice, handsome and rakish. There is one missing. But I suppose it would be too much—"

The door burst open.

"Ah," said a voice. "You must be thinking of me—the missing character! The offensive, precocious small boy!"

(She then proceeds to display some amazing skillz in dealing with difficult children: she utterly DESTROYS young Percy with her outright, jawdropping, withering sarcasm. It's pretty impressive.) THEN, THOUGH, THE WEEKEND TAKES A TURN FOR THE OMINOUS WHEN A MYSTERIOUS PRANKSTER STARTS "KILLING" GUESTS OFF IN THE METHOD BY WHICH THEIR ASSIGNED HISTORICAL FIGURES WERE MURDERED. (Got that?)

But, as usual (and luckily for all involved other than the villain), Jacqueline Kirby is ON THE CASE! As with the first JK book, this one was originally published in the mid-'70s and some of it is a bit dated. Most glaring are the depictions of obesity as grotesque... many of those passages made me twitch.

Things I love about this one:

• While I compared Jacqueline Kirby to Mary Poppins and Chestomanci in yesterday's post, it occurred to me while re-reading The Murders of Richard III that if Nancy Drew was a little bit more crabby and a little bit less of a goody-goody, she could have grown up to be almost as awesome. They both have ridiculous stores of random information (as a librarian, JK's are actually believable), they both have lots of random skillz (JK knows karate and can occasionally blow smoke rings), and they are both exceedingly resourceful in any given situation (JK's Purse, of course, is a factor). 

• Jacqueline has moved on from knitting to tatting, and it does not go well: by the end of the book, Thomas has confiscated her yarn because she kept getting so tangled up that her fingers would turn blue... so she starts smoking like a chimney again.

• As of yet, there has still been no mention whatsoever of the father of her children, and when it comes to the dudes, she is awesomely independent. Her admirers are legion, and she's not above playing the girl card to get what she wants—she is extremely willing to use her physical assets as a tool—but there is never any question about who's in control of any given situation: if she's in the room, she's the one in control.

• Though she's not perfect—her French accent, apparently, is terrible—she comes pretty close: Her glasses continue to serve as a "barometer of [her] moods"; she judges historical figures by their 'sexy factor'; as Thomas says, she has "a tongue like a viper"; she eats like she has a hollow leg; she is amazingly smug and arrogant (in a good way); she has a habit of breaking into medleys of seemingly unrelated songs (but there is always a method to her madness, and they often actually highlight her thought process); and she's JUST SO WONDERFULLY MEAN IN THE BEST WAY POSSIBLE:

"You know all this! You, who claim to have read every detective story ever printed . . . Of course you know it. You've read The Daughter of Time."

"Sure."

"Then why didn't you say so?"

"I lo-o-ove to hear you talk," said Jacqueline silkily.

• For whatever reason, I totally give Elizabeth Peters a pass on the adverbs. And believe you me, she loves the adverbs.

• There are mentions of Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as well as lots of discussion about the conventions of murder mysteries and how they compare to this investigation, so, as in the first book, it gets all meta.

• While there are plenty of moments of more in-your-face humor, it's always the slightly more subtle stuff that kills me: "An unenlightened observer would have thought Kent had told them there was a bomb in the room. Faces turned pale; eyes glazed; Lady Isobel sank back in her chair with a gasp, and Mrs. Ponsonby-Jones tried to faint."

• There's a great bit where Thomas, in his costume, is thinking that skirts are so freeing and comfortable, wondering why "women were so determined to get into trousers"... and then promptly trips on his hem. Amelia Peabody would have approved.

Next up: Die for Love!

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Author page.

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Amazon.

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Book source: ILLed through my library. (I own it, but can't locate my copy.)

Malinda Lo on Elizabeth Peters.

As promised, it's going to be All Elizabeth Peters, All the Time this week!

If you've been meaning to get in on the action, NOW IS THE TIME. As I've received so many lovely contributions (Did I mention that I'm totally still taking them?), I'll be running some of the longer ones over the course of the week, and linking everything up together at the end.

Here's what author Malinda Lo had to say:

"I'm pretty sure it was either my grandmother or aunt who first recommended an Elizabeth Peters book to me, and as soon as I read the first one, I was hooked. I've read every EP and Barbara Michaels except Barbara Michaels' Prince of Darkness because for some reason I never could get into that one. These days, funnily enough it comforts me that I have not read ALL of the Barbara Michaels books.

My favorite is definitely the Ramses and Nefret quartet within the Amelia Peabody series. I read those breathlessly when they first came out and Ramses and Nefret (Ramfret? Ha!) is one of my favorite fictional romances. Peters is such a pro — she maintained the sexual tension for so long and never made it annoying. I really need to re-read those someday soon. I'm also a huge fan of the Vicky Bliss books.

As an author, I'm always asked which authors inspired me, and I rarely say Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels, but I don't know why. I should probably start mentioning her! Maybe I'm a little worried that nobody knows about her anymore? Because she clearly taught me almost everything I know about romantic suspense. And she did it while being witty, feminist, and extremely smart. I love her books!

In fact, that makes me think: I do have a recommendation for EP/BM lovers. Read Sarah Rees Brennan's Unspoken. It's perfectly within the funny/smart/gothic Elizabeth Peters vein."

Malinda Lo is the author of several YA novels, most recently the sci-fi thriller Adaptation. Her website is www.malindalo.com.

The Seventh Sinner: Jacqueline Kirby, #1 -- Elizabeth Peters

As promised, it's going to be All Elizabeth Peters, All the Time this week!

If you've been meaning to get in on the action, NOW IS THE TIME. As I've received so many lovely contributions (Did I mention that I'm totally still taking them?), I'll be running some of the longer ones over the course of the week, and linking everything up together at the end.

For those of you who've never been introduced, Jacqueline Kirby is Elizabeth Peters' wonderfully wonderful middle-aged librarian sleuth. She's a bit like Mary Poppins—the book version, not the movie version—in that she's crabby and bossy and a bit vain, but she's also fascinating and resourceful and so all-around awesome that you'd follow her anywhere, through fire, snow, or more fire. Also like Mary Poppins, she travels with an apparently-bottomless handbag.

She's also a bit like Chrestomanci, in that if she puts on her forgetful and/or vague face, WATCH OUT.

In The Seventh Sinner, the first Jacqueline Kirby book, SHE'S NOT EVEN THE MAIN CHARACTER! Which is so unusual, right? (And which makes me wonder if she was even originally planned as a recurring character: did she just TAKE OVER? I certainly wouldn't put it past her.)

Jean Suttman is a graduate student studying in Rome. Between herself and her six friends—they call themselves the Seven Sinners—they are a painter, a sculptor, an art historian, a priest, and... er... well, I forget the rest, but you get the idea. And then there's Albert, who all of them dislike intensely, but who insists on tagging along with them at all times.

One day, while they're touring an underground Roman temple... Jean finds Albert alone in a room with his throat slit. Just before he dies, he manages to scratch the number seven into the dust... but no one knows what he was trying to say. Luckily for Jean (and unluckily for the murderer), Jacqueline Kirby is there as well: because no one—saint or sinner alike—is any match for Jacqueline Kirby.

Is it a bit dated? YUP! It came out in 1972, which comes across in the cultural aspects, especially, and there are also some bits that don't come across as particularly politically correct. But is it still totally fun? FOR SURE. I love Elizabeth Peters across the board, but the Jacqueline Kirby books continue to be my very favorite.

A few of my favorite things in this one:

How we first meet her: It's the classic librarian-with-her-hair-down scene! Jean and Michael (one of the other students) barrel around a corner and run full-tilt into her, knocking her down. While Jean had noticed her in the library previously, she hadn't paid much attention to this severe-looking figure with her bun and her horn-rimmed glasses and her impeccably tailored suits... a far cry from the creature that now lies before them, with the whistle-provoking legs and the hair like "molten bronze" and the green "seawater" eyes.

Then, of course, she opens her mouth and she's wonderfully snippy and crabby (but not without a large dose of humor), refuses their help in standing and instead, threatens to lie there on the floor for the rest of the day.

The cultural and historical references, from the most well-known to the most esoteric: Jacqueline, as a librarian and a knowledge-lover, knows "more totally useless things than anyone you'll ever meet." She drops references without explaining them, and expects people to keep up with her... much like Elizabeth Peters does in her narration. If the references go over the reader's head—and it seems doubtful that anyone would catch them all—it isn't a big deal, though, as they're not necessary for mystery-solving purposes, and just act as little fun bonuses. Example: when all of the Sinners get introduced at the beginning, the Scoville siblings get described as having hair like "Little Orphan Annie, Struwwelpeter, and Art Garfunkel."

J. Kirby's love of thrillers: As she's a huge fan of murder mysteries, she references them while doing her detecting, and the whole thing gets pretty fantastically meta. ALSO, the book culminates in one of those scenes where all of the suspects get together, the investigator explains her process and then identifies the killer. AWESOME.

This: "I expected to be laughed at, but that didn't bother me; ridicule, as a weapon, is only effective against the young." 

She always drags her knitting around with her, but she's terrible at knitting:

"It's supposed to be a sweater," Jacqueline said doubtfully. "For an unfortunate baby of my acquaintance. Not a grandchild, no. I don't think I'm about to acquire one in the near future. The real function of this mess is to keep my hands occupied so I won't smoke."

"I think you just dropped a stitch."

"The baby won't know the difference," Jacqueline said callously. "And if you keep up those smart remarks, I'll let you do it." 

Every dude on the scene has the hots for her, but in her case, IT'S ACTUALLY UNDERSTANDABLE.

I could go on and on (yes, even more), but I'll save it for Book Two tomorrow.

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Author page.

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Amazon.

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Book source: ILLed through my library. (I totally own it—probably in triplicate—I just CAN'T FIND IT.)

Reminder!

My Elizabeth Peters Week 'o Love begins on SUNDAY!

So, EP fans: if you've been planning on filling this puppy out, let's stop with the procrastinating, shall we?

(And thank you VERY much to those of you who've already filled it out—I'm very much looking forward to next week! It shall be mucho fun.)

Are you a fan of Elizabeth Peters? (And/or Barbara Michaels?)

I have declared March 3-9 to be PETERSWEEK* in these here parts.

SO. If you'd like to join in, definitely do send me your contribution**—something about why you love her, your first experience reading her, your favorite character or book or series—at bookshelvesofdoom AT gmail DOT com! I'll round them up and post them throughout the week. Be sure to include info about who YOU are, including your blog (if you have one), Twitter handle (ditto), etc.

Or, of course, if you'd like to post something at your own blog, just let me know when you do, and I'll round up the links! Same goes for tweets with the #elizabethpeters hashtag.

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*I am totally open to changing the name if anyone has anything more ridiculously puntastic to suggest...

**It doesn't have to be an essay or anything—this is supposed to be a fun lovefest, not homework!