Night Train to Memphis by Elizabeth Peters

A tip has been given to the authorities that some valuable items are going to be stolen from Egypt. And that Vicky Bliss somehow knows the culprit.  So she's strong-armed into joining a luxury tour as a guest lecturer even though ancient Egypt is nowhere near her area of expertise. But to make matters a living nightmare, she's confronted with the man she loves... married to another woman. 

So now, she's dealing with claustrophobia, mayhem, jealousy... and maybe even murder.

Barbara Rosenblat is, as always, amazing and this series continues to delight.

Four stars

This book came out in 1994

Follows Trojan Gold

Followed by The Laughter of Dead Kings

Audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Trojan Gold by Elizabeth Peters

A mysterious photograph is sent to Vicky through the mail. With no name on the envelope, she is not certain who it came from. The envelope, removed by the overly efficient Gerta, may or may not have been covered in blood. Of course, Schmidt is not going to let this rest. He wants to know exactly who sent the letter and where the lost jewels depicted in the picture went to. Good it be that there is a lost stash of museum items stolen by the Nazis yet to be uncovered?

Vicky doesn't necessarily believe it to be so but she is willing to find out. And maybe that will bring her across the path of her on-again/off-again beau again. 

This book is better in the audio version. The narrator, Barbara Rosenblat, is one of my favorites and bumped it up an entire star. 

Four stars

This book came out in 1987

Follows Silhouette in Scarlet

Followed by Night Train to Memphis

In my Audible library

Opinions are my own

Silhouette in Scarlet by Elizabeth Peters

One of my favorite heroines is back again. Vicky Bliss is on the case once again as she's searching for a lost cache of Scandinavian treasure. One perfect rose (not, alas, a limousine for either she or Dorothy Parker) sends her off on a trip to the land of her ancestors. A trip where she encounters a lost love, a bad guy who does silhouettes, and an extended stay on a millionaire's island. 

Another great story and very enjoyable as an audiobook, not as good when I reread as a physical copy. Rosenblat makes the angst fun but it was a little overwrought in the written word. 

Three and a half stars

This book came out in 1983

Follows Street of the Five Moons

Followed by Trojan Horse

Borrowed as an ebook from the CloudLibrary

Opinions are my own

The Love Talker by Elizabeth Peters

Definitely not one of Ms. Peters' best books. It has the usual mysterious atmosphere and a heroine in danger, but the "romance" aspects of the book were just a little too ooky for me. Somehow, thought it was published in 1980, it felt more dated than many of her previous books.
Laurie Carlson is working on her dissertation in the bleak winter of Chicago when she gets a letter special delivery from her usually parsimonious aunt telling her she needs to come back to Pennsylvania. Her brother who she hasn't seen in a number of years calls and the two decide it is past time to go back and visit their family. There are three siblings left from their mother's mother, their aunts Lizzy and Ida and their brother Ned, now all in their 70 living together in the family mansion holding to their Spencerian ideals.  Aunt Lizzy is a fabulous cook and up-to-date with fashions but she has followed every out-there idea there is. The latest seems to be fairies and it has Aunt Ida, frankly quite worried. Uncle Ned is not very worried but, then, he is incredibly laid back and just takes the world as it comes. 
Unfortunately, it seems that someone is working very hard to make Aunt Lizzy believe that fairies are real, but for what purpose? And why does it seem so sinister?

Two stars

This book came out in 1980

Audiobook borrowed from Audible Premium Plus

Opinions are my own

Devil May Care by Elizabeth Peters

I love the cover description of this book. Accurate but misleading... in the best possible way. Not unlike Elizabeth Peters. Who created a fun book. Not necessarily haute literature but definitely worth a read nevertheless; it ages remarkably well and the narrator is fantastic.
Ellie is on her way up to house sit for her rich, eccentric aunt. Also in the car, her asshat fiance, Henry. The vivid description of Henry's thoughts perfectly describe his character. He starts out seeming like an all-American and, well, we also see the flip side of getting that dream. 
We get great descriptions of all of the characters but not as much insight as we get into both Henry and Ellie. We learn that Ellie's aunt is going on vacation and Ellie is staying to watch the many, many animals. Except that she also sees something else. Of the six prominent families in the area, Ellie sees ghosts related to five of them. And starts wondering why. Thankfully, the lawnboy, and a descendant of one of the families, Donald, is there  to help.

Three and a half stars
This book came out in 1977
Audible book
Opinions are my own

Legend in Green Velvet by Elizabeth Peters

I have been ripping through audiobooks of Elizabeth Peters' standalones. Most of them hold up really well with humor and awesome, feminist heroines. This is not one of the better ones but it did have the rampant history involved and echoes of the other books that have held up better to the inevitable tramp of time.
We are following along with Susan, an archeological student who has gotten the lifelong opportunity of being able to go on a Pictish dig in Scotland. She's just arrived in the country when she meets a busker/doomsday prophet/revolutionary who gives her a coded note and then ends up dead. Luckily, she runs into Jamie Erskine, a laird who takes her under his wing. And it's a good thing they are together because someone is looking for a treasure and they are not above framing Susan and Jamie for murder in order to get what they want.
The sexism of the time that Peters usually avoids is pervasive in this book (though not as bad as the Jackal's Head which I couldn't even finish) I did enjoy Grace Conlin as the narrator. Two and a half stars rounded up.

Three stars

This book came out March 1st, 1976

Borrowed as audiobook from Audible Premium Plus

Opinions are my own

Street of the Five Moons by Elizabeth Peters

 A great example of why I love this series even though it's ... 40 years old? Good Lord. So self-referential (you would never meet the villain at the end) and wry. Vicky Bliss is a fantabulous character. A blonde with a body like a centerfold, a mind like a steel trap, and the wit to keep you reading.
This time, there are replicas of famous items that are being put out into the world, including one from her very own university. So Vicky's off to Rome to figure out what's going on. Her adventures are fun and fascinating. As is John Smythe, the Englishman she meets along the way. 
The mystery is fairly clued with the reader able to guess the villain(s?) fairly easily. And all of the characters are painted so vividly including secondary characters like Herr Schmidt, the Italian principessa, Bruno, the Italian count as well as his son, his mother, and his mistress. Even Caesar the dog.

Three and a half stars

Follows Borrower of the Night

Followed by Silhouette in Scarlet

This book came out in 1978

Borrowed as an ebook from the CloudLibrary

Opinions are my own

Borrower of the Night by Elizabeth Peters

Vicki Bliss is a historian who has just had the find of a lifetime fall into her lap, proof that a shrine built by Remenschneider (I listened to the book so spelling may be suspect) actually existed. A race between herself and her lover, Tony Lawrence, as well as treasure hunter George Nolan, takes them all to Germany in an old, supposedly haunted castle.
In the setting of the book, the castle is now a hotel run by the final countess (who married into the family) and the last surviving Drachenstein, Irma. The Grauphin, the old countess, is an iron-fisted besom while her niece is a “perfect heroine” including to the point of being a fainting flower. There is also at the castle a Doctor Blankenhagen who may or may not also be looking for the shrine. The countess also has a séance-loving friend and there is an older gentleman, Schmidt, who round out the party.
Peters infused the book with a sense of humor about the whole gothic atmosphere, at one point, Vicki says something along the lines of, “A secret passage? That was all we needed.” Love those bits of self-awareness.

Four stars

Follows The Camelot Caper

Followed by Street of the Five Moons

This book came out in 1973

Borrowed as an ebook from CloudLibrary

Opinions are my own

The Camelot Caper by Elizabeth Peters

When the book opens, Jessica Tregarth is on the run. From whom? She doesn't know. But her bag was almost stolen (thank goodness for that policeman) and someone has searched it. Now there's someone following her. Luck provides her with the amenable people on the bus she stumbles on to. They drop her at the Blue Boar where she is supposed to meet up with a local, but instead is picked up by David Randall, gothic novelist. While he doesn't believe her story at first, being roughed up by two gentlemen soon changes his mind. Suddenly the two of them are on the run together, being chased (and chasing) the men who seem bent on getting the familial ring away from Jess.
I've read a couple of Peters's books lately and I am enjoying the fact that she mocks the very types of books that she is writing. She does it so well, having her heroine deride the characters in Gothic novels right before they themselves are kidnapped and tossed into a trunk or some other popular plot.

This book is loosely connected to the Vicky Bliss series introducing her eventual love interest to readers as "Cousin John." 

Three and a half stars

Followed by Borrower of the Night

This book came out in 1969

Borrowed as an audiobook from Audible Premium Plus

Opinions are my own

Copenhagen Connection by Elizabeth Peters

I really enjoy this book every time I read it. The story of a young woman (Elizabeth Jones) who not only comes face-to-face with her author heroine, she gets to work for her after the woman's assistant has an unfortunate accident at the airport. But that accident seems to just be the first in a series of problems that come up before the author herself disappears and Elizabeth is left with the woman's surly son. 
This book just tickles me. It's not perfect but it is Peters at the height of her writing. 

Four stars
This book came out in 1982
Borrowed as audiobook from Audible Plus
Opinions are my own

Reread May 2022

Die for Love by Elizabeth Peters

 Ah, Jacqueline Kirby, I love you. An older, sexually-liberated female who solves mysteries? Um, yes please. It's a little disconcerting to read how romances are described in this book but this was written in a different time so...
Jackie is going to a Romance Novel convention, just to get out of Dodge. Her current love is getting a little clingy and this librarian (!) needs her space. So it's off to New York and some down-time with authors. Except that it's not really less stressful. Backbiting authors, conniving agents, and sneaky reporters all add up for a scintillating time for Jackie, until one of the reporters gets murdered. And there is a surfeit of suspects so, while it took a while to get into the book, the solution was not what I expected.

Four stars
Follows The Murders of Richard III
Followed by Naked Once More
This book came out January 1st, 1974
Audiobook from Audible Premium Plus
Opinions are my own

Reread October 2022

The Murders of Richard III by Elizabeth Peters

Jacqueline Kirby is visiting and old friend in England. While there, she is invited to go with him too a country manor where a group of current day Richard III sympathizers will reenact his life before a letter is unveiled proving that Richard did not kill the princes in the tower.
But someone begins playing malicious pranks on the guests portraying Richard's rivals in the same order that Richard supposedly killed them. 
Not my favorite Kirby novel but still shows Jacqueline's amazing sense of humor. And is amazingly better as an audiobook.

Three stars
Follows The Seventh Sinner
Followed by Die for Love
This book came out January 1st, 1974

Audiobook from Audible Premium Plus
Opinions are my own

Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters

I often wonder why I don't love the rest of the series as much as I love this book (other people love ALL the books) but I think the crux of this one for me was the added "love story" between Amelia and Emerson. I mean, here's this thirty-two-year-old spinster who's got some money and some freedom for the first time in her life. She's more practical and headstrong than most of the women in her time period. Who else would pick up an obviously starving young woman off the streets and decide to keep her? Evelyn turns out to be a wonderful acquisition, fallen woman though she is, but it's still an unexpected event. For anyone other than Amelia Peabody. And then there's her love of Egypt. It's not just because the country is popular. No. Amelia is really interested in the past and her love of languages interests even the irascible Radcliffe Emerson. Yes, he yells at everyone, including her, but digging up the past is serious work and he believes that no one can do it like him. Throw in a mysterious mummy and you've really got some issues for him to deal with.

Great book, totally worth reading and re-reading. And listening to.

Four and a half stars

Followed by The Curse of the Pharoahs

This book came out in 1975

Borrowed as audiobook from Overdrive

Opinions are my own

Naked Once More by Elizabeth Peters

Image from Goodreads

I know I'm in a minority but, for me, there is only one Elizabeth Peters mystery series and it's not Amelia Peabody.
Jacqueline Kirby is the woman I want to be when I grow up. Former librarian turned world famous romance writer who has a quick quip for every situation. A little brash yet able to charm. Maybe without so many dead bodies though...
I read the Kirby books about ten years ago and enjoyed them immensely. When I saw this book on NetGalley, I immediately hit 'request' to see if they were as good as I remembered.
Oh, they are. Or, at least this one is. Yes, it's a bit dated (word processors anyone?) but most of it holds up amazingly well.
Jacqueline jumps at the chance to finish the last two books in a trilogy. The author wrote one fabulously received book and then, one rainy night, vanished. Seven years later, she's now officially been declared dead and authors are vying to be the one chosen to finish out the series. Some are in deadly earnest, though that doesn't throw Jacqueline off her stride. She tries to finish the next book but is distracted by what happened to the original author. Okay, and a little distracted by the increasingly dangerous "accidents" that seem to be occurring to her.

Naked Once More

Follows Die for Love
This book came out August 1st, 1989
Borrowed from Audible Premium Plus
Five Stars

Reread as Audible Premium January 2021, October 2022