Night Train to Memphis - Hardcover

Peters, Elizabeth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0446515868 ISBN 13: 9780446515863

Publisher: Grand Central Pub, 1994

Synopsis

Combining adventure, suspense, and romance, a new Vicky Bliss thriller finds art historian Vicky cruising the Nile in an attempt to unmask her ex-lover and most dangerous antagonist, Sir John, before he can rob the Cairo Museum. Tour.

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Reviews

Comically mixing country music lyrics with Egyptology lore, this fifth Vicky Bliss tale (after Trojan Gold) focuses more on the Munich National Museum's assistant curator's love affair with a British art forger/thief than on suspense. Vicky poses as an Egyptian art expert on a cruise up the Nile in order to help the Munich police spot the leader of an art ring that is planning to rob the Cairo museum. Among those whom she suspects are Feisal, the native guide, a suspicious pair of men named Bright and Sweet, and, alas, her old lover and adversary, Sir John, who is on board with his mother and his new bride. The accomplished Peters's latest quirky, lighthearted novel sports some harrowing moments, as when Vicky, her eccentric boss, Herr Dr. Schmidt, and John attempt to escape from the villainous ring, but with its emphasis on Vicky's love life, the story remains essentially a spirited soap opera interspersed with guidebook descriptions. Author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

When a cryptic message recovered from a dead agent hints that the thieves who plan to rob the Cairo Museum have booked passage on Galactic Tours' luxurious Nile cruise, Munich art historian Vicky Bliss (Trojan Gold, 1987, etc.) is pressed into service on the cruise on the strength of her long love-hate relationship with Sir John Smythe, the likely prince of these thieves. Sure enough, John pops up on the guest list, traveling with his mother and his bride, a slip of a girl who sends Vicky into paroxysms of jealousy. But she needn't worry: Before the end of her odyssey from Giza to Luxor aboard the Queen of the Nile and back to Cairo by any means available, John will have revealed his true colors several times over, as will the rest of the passengers and crew, most of whom- -from billionaire museum donor Larry Blenkiron to Hellenic expert Alice Gordon to sexy tour director Feisal and Vicky's fawning room steward Ali--turn out to be working for either the authorities or the crooks, or both at once. In short, it's another of Peters's farcical, wildly overextended homages to Agatha Christie--if you can imagine ``one of those old-fashioned English country-house murder mysteries'' in which the dramatis personae keep getting shot, donning and doffing elaborate disguises, screaming and collapsing in each other's arms, and confessing machiavellian new layers of loyalties every chapter or so. Devoted fans of Peters will swallow this gooey triple-decker sundae whole, though readers not up to such heroic efforts may find themselves appreciating by contrast the finesse of such apparently artless Christies as The Man in the Brown Suit. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Peters' fans will be delighted with her newest mystery. The talented, popular author offers a clever plot combined with an exotic setting, well-crafted writing, wryly funny humor, interesting factoids about Egyptian antiquities, and lively, attractive heroine Vicky Bliss, who can hold her own against the meanest meanies. Vicky, a curator at Munich's National Museum, is asked to go undercover on a cruise down the Nile. Her mission: to spot who among her fellow passengers might be the master criminal about to carry out a major theft of valuable antiquities. Vicky has a sneaking suspicion that the thief the police are after is the mysterious man she knows as John, who's perfectly capable of illegal activities and who's been both her sworn enemy and her sometime lover. When John shows up on the cruise and a crew member is murdered, Vicky begins to fear her suspicions were correct--but she doesn't have enough evidence to rule out the other passengers. This one is vintage Peters at her entertaining best--a top choice for all mystery collections. Emily Melton

Using a location and subject familiar to readers of her historical fiction series featuring 19th-century archaeologist Amelia Peabody, Peters combines ancient wonders with modern calamity. Dr. Vicky Bliss (Borrower of the Night, Chivers North American Pr., 1992), who works for the National Museum in Munich, joins a luxurious Nile cruise in order to forestall an alleged plot to rob the Cairo Museum. The ship and its 30 passengers compare most favorably to other such microcosms, especially in view of Vicky's witty sarcasm, fevered conjecture, and stubborn bravery. Brisk adventure in exotic surroundings from a practiced hand; heartily endorsed.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Grand Central Pub
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0446515868
• ISBN 13: 9780446515863
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 353