Status
Available
Call number
Series
Genres
Publication
Avon Books, 2000.
Description
Fiction. Mystery. HTML: 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.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Nextian
Talk about a dated book (and not necessarily in a good way). Still, I will read the next one because there are elements for a good series here. And Elizabeth Peters at her worst is still better than most other mystery writers.
LibraryThing member Heptonj
A rather far-fetched adventure but clever. Vicky Bliss is the unlikely heroine of a medieval mystery with a light touch of sexuality without the oh so boring romance. I gave this three and a half stars as although it was well-written, not hard to read and interesting it seemed to lack a certain
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quality which I can only define as oomph! I am certainly going to try the other two novels in the series as I think it will get better as it goes along. Show Less
LibraryThing member cbl_tn
Elizabeth Peters gives the Gothic novel a modern spin as Professor Vicky Bliss races against her academic colleague/rival/hopeful suitor, Tony, and a handful of suspicious characters, to find a lost Renaissance shrine. All of the characters are thrown together in a medieval German castle, complete
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with suits of armor, a resident ghost, a crypt, the ruins of a tower, and secret passages. It's a lot like the old Scooby-Doo cartoons I watched on Saturday mornings as a kid. Art and history lovers looking for some purely escapist reading will find it here. Show Less
LibraryThing member bsquaredinoz
I've enjoyed Peters' Amelia Peabody series but this one, featuring art historian Vicky Bliss, didn't engage me at all. The characters weren't particularly well rounded,the story was a bit ho hum and there wasn't the humour that I enjoy in the other series. I didn't finish this one.
LibraryThing member annbury
Elizabeth Peters is best known for her Amelia Peabody series of Egyptological thrillers, but the Vicky Bliss novels are well worth reading. This one embroils our art-historian heroine with the search for a missing medieval masterpiece, and some very nasty characters indeed. Nice use of
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art-historical detail, and a humorous tone, make these a pleasure to read. Show Less
LibraryThing member tjsjohanna
Vicki is great! She's strong and independent but has a soft side that occasionally peeks out. There's quite a bit of comic relief in the midst of the drama of the mystery and as other reviewers have noted, Ms. Peters does a good job of spoofing the genre while still writing a good mystery.
LibraryThing member francescadefreitas
II really enjoy Elizabeth Peters, so I was keen to try this series by the same author under a different name. But I didn't take to it, it felt dated - a seventies picture of men and women competing intellectually. The mystery was fun, and the German setting interesting, but the characters left me
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cold. Show Less
LibraryThing member elwyne
Okay I didn't REALLY read it. I got a chapter or so in and was so annoyed by the narrator - and bored by the lack of story - I just put it aside. I really don't enjoy stories where none of the characters are remotely likable. And also nothing happens.
LibraryThing member riverwillow
I'm a great fan of the Amelia Peabody series, so I though I'd check out this more modern offering from Peters. Like Amelia, Vicky is bright, independent, and, considering that this was first published in the 1970s, a woman slightly ahead of her time. The mystery was interesting, although it took a
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while to get going. Show Less
LibraryThing member thornton37814
Vicky Bliss and several others head to a German castle to try to locate a missing piece of art dating to the Renaissance. There are all the things you would expect in a castle such as suits of armor, secret passages, and ghosts. It wasn't the most captivating mystery. This book could have used a
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glossary for the German words in the text that were unexplained. I refused to go track down my German dictionary so I hope I was able to figure out what most of them meant by their context. I have a low tolerance for Occultic themes in books, and there was too much of a presence in this one for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member susanamper
The first Vicky Bliss mystery written in 1973. Schmidt's character is not fully outline, but Vicky's pretty much is. She and another academic, Tony, are off to Germany to find the last creation of master wood carver. The story only kept my interest because I like Bliss from other novels.
LibraryThing member JenJ.
Listened to the Recorded Books cassette edition narrated by Barbara Rosenblatt. Great fun! Although the story took awhile to get rolling, by the end I didn't want to turn it off. I'm not sure the mystery and its resolution would hold together upon close inspection, but I was involved enough that
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this didn't bother me. I definitely found the comments on sexual politics and feminism interesting, but they clearly showed the 1970's publication date. Show Less
LibraryThing member Snukes
So many things about this book bugged me. In fact, I'm struggling to think of what I DID like about this book. I guess the ambiance was nice. Set in an old castle in Germany, all the crawling about in the ruins and discussion of history. I liked that. But...
The characters were not engaging. Our
The mystery was also odd. They were searching for a lost work of art which they happened to read about in a book. Apparently everyone else in the world incidentally read the same book the exact same week because everyone was looking for this thing independently. The art had been lost for 500 years, but this week everyone remembered to look for it.
And the archaeologist in me sobbed at all of their techniques. Trained historians should know better. They're just snatching and grabbing and smashing antiquities right and left. Europeans obviously find the medieval period of little value (the Americans and volunteers were always assigned to the medieval levels on my digs in the Netherlands) but... gah!
And when the heck was this story set, anyway? Telegraphs and kerosene lamps suggest early in the century, but Vicky's wearing pants and working as a professor, so that seems less likely. Germany has zero apparent concern about war, either, which leaves me absolutely lost.
I guess I'll go back to Amelia Peabody.
The characters were not engaging. Our
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heroine and narrator, Vicky, was a smart, independent woman of un-delicate proportions (her self-description as being a "bouncing Brunhilda" was pretty funny) and competitive spirit. She has declared that she will never marry, but seems to be in some kind of baffling relationship with a fellow professor named Tony. Tony is a total asshat who treats Vicky with disrespect and has an out-of-control ego. Vicky's attitude and actions never make a lot of sense to me. One minute she's cursing Tony and trying to one-up him, the next she is simpering and trying to soothe his ego. The other characters are kind of like white noise - there, but not contributing much.The mystery was also odd. They were searching for a lost work of art which they happened to read about in a book. Apparently everyone else in the world incidentally read the same book the exact same week because everyone was looking for this thing independently. The art had been lost for 500 years, but this week everyone remembered to look for it.
And the archaeologist in me sobbed at all of their techniques. Trained historians should know better. They're just snatching and grabbing and smashing antiquities right and left. Europeans obviously find the medieval period of little value (the Americans and volunteers were always assigned to the medieval levels on my digs in the Netherlands) but... gah!
And when the heck was this story set, anyway? Telegraphs and kerosene lamps suggest early in the century, but Vicky's wearing pants and working as a professor, so that seems less likely. Germany has zero apparent concern about war, either, which leaves me absolutely lost.
I guess I'll go back to Amelia Peabody.
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LibraryThing member Condorena
I don't think I can add anything to the other reviews of this book. Everything has been said. I am glad to hear that the next in the series are better. I had a bit or trouble that a couple of brash Americans feel they can walk into a castle which is someone's home and feel they have a right to
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search it from stem to stern. Aside from the fact they were using clues published in a book. For Pete's sake it sounded like a wild goose chase for most of the story. Show Less
LibraryThing member Aelianna
The story was slow to start, but it got better. Still, I'm glad I started the series with book number two. Would have been nice to have read this before no. 4, since Tony shows up there, but it's not importent for the plot.
LibraryThing member jmoncton
This is the first of the Vicky Bliss series - great narration by Barbara Rosenblat - witty, suspenseful, and a good mix of history. Definitly a good series to recommend.
LibraryThing member EmpressReece
3.5 stars- I actually listened to the Audio Book and it started out very slow. It took me several tries listening to it to get into it. After the first disc though, i started enjoying it and ended up really liking it. Im going to try the second book and I hope it is a little more polished.
LibraryThing member PattyLee
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?
LibraryThing member kmartin802
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
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.
Their quest
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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.
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LibraryThing member themulhern
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".
LibraryThing member zoomball
Now that I am retired I decided to give Peter's another chance. I remember not liking one of her books a really long time ago. Unfortunately, I couldn't keep going with this first book in the series. I would like to comment, however, one one reviewer's review that called it "dated feminism". Duh,
No rating since I didn't finish the book.
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it was published in 1973. For the time this was pretty progressive stuff. However, the reason I can't keep going with this book is because of the protagonist's constant derision of her body size. I have a body much like that of the character and find her perceptions of self very demeaning. I was 22 at the time this book was written. Which gets me back to the feminism comments. This negative take on body size is really in strong contradiction to the social feminist aspects of the book. No rating since I didn't finish the book.
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LibraryThing member Katissima
This is the book that introduces Vicky Bliss, although I don't think it is the best book in the series (Elizabeth Peters is one of those authors that you can see dramatic improvements in her writing from her earlier books to her later books). You could actually skip this and pick up the series with
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book 2, Street of the Five Moons, without being really confused. Then, if you really love Vicky Bliss go back and read Borrower of the Night. Show Less
LibraryThing member leslie.98
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!).
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!).
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1973
ISBN
0380733390 / 9780380733392