Night Train to Memphis: 09/17/08

Night Train to Memphis, the fifth Vicky Bliss mystery by Elizabeth Peters was actually the first one I read. When we were moving to Daly City from South Pasadena we got the audio version and listened to it up and down the I5. Having so enjoyed listening to the mystery, I went back and found copies of the previous four which I read through over the next couple of years.

Night Train the Memphis finds Vicky Bliss outside her comfort zone and plopped into the middle of Amelia Peabody Emerson's hunting grounds: Egypt. Yes, the two series exist in the same universe, just separated by a number of decades. Interestingly, Barbara Michaels (another pen name for the author) also exists and is publishing books; Vicky mentions being a fan.

Vicky is sent on a cruise as a lecturer to help the Munich police figure out who among the guests are planning to rob the Cairo Museum. What she isn't expecting is to find her old lover (and well known art thief). Worse of all, he's newly married!

The book has its moments of humor especially when Vicky is trying to feign interest in a subject she's supposed to an expert in when she's bored to tears. Lie the other Vicky Bliss novels, it's much shorter than the newer Amelia Peabody mysteries. Peters books are best when they are short and tightly edited.

On re-visiting the story with better knowledge of John (her thieving lover) I found his actions and motivation especially in the marriage out of character for him. His now obviously odd behavior distracted me from my earlier complete enjoyment of the mystery.

Nonetheless, I am still eager to read the recently released sixth novel Laughter of Dead Kings.

The entire list of books in the series is:

1. Borrower of the Night (1973)
2. Street of Five Moons (1978)
3. Silhouette in Scarlet (1983)
4. Trojan Gold (1987)
5. Night Train to Memphis (1994)
6. Laughter of Dead Kings (2008) (I really want to read this one!)

Comments (2)

Comment #1:Thursday, September, 18, 2008 at 09:22:51

Of Cats

Interesting review as always ~ have a happy weekend :)

Comment #2: Friday, September 19, 2008 at 11:49:15

Pussreboots

Thanks. Happy reading.