[7/10]After three Amelia Peabody Egyptian mysteries, I decided to branch out and try something else by the author. Enters Fraulein Bliss, a contemporary (cca. 1973) American art historian, feminist alter ego of Indiana Jones, hunting for lost treasures among the tombs of the past. Borrower of the Night takes her to Bavaria and a 16 Century castle turned into a hotel, where a priceless wood sculpture from the time of the Reformation may be hidden.There are some parallels that can be drawn between Vicky Bliss and Amelia Peabody - both strong, opinionated women, impulsive and careless of the dangers inherent to their career paths. At the moment I prefer Amelia, probably because I spent more time in her company. Vicky Bliss is supposed to be of MidWestern (Ohio?) origins, but I found her voice generic and less convincing than her Brit counterpart. She's also supposed to be super-smart, but i found her sometimes inconsistent in her feminist/ rationalist atitudes, engaging from time to time in hysterics and whimpering. I loved though her self deprecating presentation as a 6 foot tall cross between a Playboy bunny and a Scandinavian Valkyrie, the very anthitesis of what she considers the standard romance novel heroine: The heroine of my adolescent daydreams had a heart-shaped face framed in clouds of smoky black hair. She was a tiny creature with an ivory complexion and a rosebud mouth. When she was enfolded in the hero's brawny arms, her head only reached as high as his heart. I found the passage particularly hilarious as it is an almost perfect description of Skye O'Malley - the annoying perfect woman whose bodice gets frequently ripped in Bertrice Small series. To continue the feminist dismissal of these romantic clichees, Vicky likes men, but doesn't see the point of marrying them. Her views are very clear on the subject, and expressed forcibly when she refutes her boyfriends Tony proposal: Any man with a grain of sense knows that marriage is the only way, these days, to acquire a full-time maid who works twenty-five hours a day, with no time off and no pay except room and board. After an introductory segment in the US, the chase moves to Rothenburg in Germany, a fitting background to a story that relies heavily on ruined castles, dark alleys, ancient cemeteries, secret passages through walls, moldy dungeons and even what appears to be ghosts and other supernatural manifestations. Here's how Vicky describes the city: Rothenburg is the quintesence of Romance - not the watered down love stories that pass under the name today, but Romance in the old sense - masked desperadoes lurking in the shadow of a carved archway, to intercept the Duke before he can reach his lady love; conspirators gathered in a raftered tavern room, plotting to restore the Rightful Heir; Cyrano and D'Artagnan, striding out with clanking swords to defend the Honour of the Queen. The prize is a shrine sculpted by Riemenschneider (he's real, I checked, and his art is superb), and the key to unlocking the mystery requires the solution to a 600 years old murder. Murder is also afoot in the present times, with someone trying to stop the investigation by any means. I didn't find the plot particularly interesting, I believe it was more of an excuse for Vicky and her friends to go out every night in spooky locations and get into all sorts of mishaps and misunderstandings. The comedy is balanced with some good and informative passages about the Reformation period. One character quotes Montaigne in a discussion about Church abuses and persecutions ("It is setting a high value upon our opinions to roast men alive on account of them"). In another place , Vicky explains her interest in the past: In recent years, students have done a lot of complaining about 'relevance'. No one can quarell with the basic idea: that education should have something to do with real life and its problems. The trouble comes when you try to define the word. What is relavant? Not history, according to the more radical critics. Who cares what happened in ancient Babylon or medieval England? It's now that counts.They couldn't be more wrong. Everything has happened before - not once, but over and over again. We may not be able to solve our problems through what are pompously called 'the lessons of history', but at least we should be able to recognize the issues and perhaps avoid some of the solutions that have failed in the past. We can take heart in our own dilemma by realizing that other people in other times have survived worse. In conclusion, while the book has a general lightweight feel of a 1940's screwball comedy, it also has good research of the subject matter, and a likable protagonist that will probably tempt me to come back to the series.
Borrower of the NightVicky Bliss, book 1By Elizabeth PetersThe late Elizabeth Peters, a/k/a Barbara Michaels, i/r/l Barabara Mertz, has long been one of my favorite authors. I read her (as Barbara Michaels) Gothics voraciously as a teen and young adult, and looked ridiculously forward to each new book in the Amelia Peabody series. I’d read at least one of the Vicky Bliss novels before, and a couple of the Jacqueline Kirby adventures. I’ve had this book, “Borrower of the Night,” in my nightstand for a long time, but it took my Kindle breaking down for me to pull it out. Now, I’m wondering why it took so long. In this, her first adventure, Vicky Bliss is introduced as a commanding presence: tall – over 6 feet – and voluptuous, she is also dangerously intelligent and, at least to me, perhaps a bit socially awkward. Nonetheless, while a new faculty member at an Ohio university, she becomes friends (perhaps with benefits?) with her colleague, Tony, who is at least equally as intelligent as she is, although she will never admit that. While waiting for him to finish reviewing some historical tomes so they can go to a social event, she picks up one of the books to read. She becomes obsessed with clues in the book regarding the final work of a German sculptor from the early 1500s. Of course, whatever Vicky is obsessed with obsesses Tony and the two enter into a competition to see who can figure out the mystery of the lost Riemenschneider artwork. This leads them separately, over the summer break, to Rothenburg, Germany, the home of the Drachenstein castle, and the late Count Burkhardt Drachenstein, whose torture of Riemenschneider in 1525 was at the core of the mystery. They find the castle is being turned into a hotel/resort, with some of it remodeled into modern rooms, but many of the original rooms from the 1500s time period available for rent. Of course, all of our players in this drama are in those rooms.The castle is overseen by an older woman and her younger niece, who is the actual heiress. The older woman lives graciously, amid what valuable antique pieces have not been sold off, while the niece lives a seeming Cinderella like existence, doing all of the cleaning, cooking, and other work around the schloss. What follows is a Gothic masterpiece replete with history, old documents, secret passages, crypts, enigmatic artwork, séances, midnight rambles in dusty parts of the castle and keep, the local graveyard – and yes, some grave robbing and proper hauntings. Perfect reading for the Christmas holidays!First published, I believe, in 1973, this book far outdates modern technology. So, no cell phones, no iPads, no flipcams. The danger is real and salvation does not hinge on cell reception. It was a time long before the fall of the Berlin wall, as was evidenced by this passage on 178 (paperback): “…He told you his degree is from Leipzig? Convenient that it’s in the East Zone, where official inquiries aren’t easy for us amateurs to make.” This was also an era when publishing houses were more than just names. It was a time of meticulous care, especially of top notch authors, with much attention given to proofreading and editing. As a result, the book reads like velvet – smooth and soft, without a grammar or spelling hiccup. The pacing is wonderful, with the main character displaying not only her brains, but her insatiable curiosity which leads her, like all the heroines in every horror movie you ever saw, into exploring strange noices, dark passages and graveyards, by herself, in the middle of the night. It was a wonderful read that left me thinking perhaps I should look up the rest of the Vicky Bliss novels, and maybe those Jacqueline Kirby novels, too. And while I’m at it, I should maybe reread those wonderful Egyptian adventures of Amelia Peabody. One thing for sure, I realizing once again how very much the mystery world has lost with this author’s passing.By the way, I was never able to figure out the title and what it had to do with the story, other than most of the action takes place after the sun has set.
Do You like book Borrower Of The Night (2000)?
*This is a review of the audiobook version. The book itself is 4 stars, but the audio narration bumps it up to 5.*I liked this book a lot. I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed it as much reading it as I did listening, because the narrator is fantastic. I love the tone in Elizabeth Peters's books, and Barbara Rosenblat really delivers. Her voice is extremely flexible, and she did a great job with accents and the range of characters.Vicky Bliss, an extremely tall and buxom historian, finds what she thinks is new evidence of a new work by a famous German sculptor. She follows the trail to a German schools and finds that she's not the only one looking for the hidden work. Let the hijinks ensue!First of all, Vicky is great. I love the women that Elizabeth Peters writes. They're strong, self-aware, wry, and feminists. They're not perfect of course, but I have no issues rooting for Vicky (or Amelia Peabody), and their sarcastic and witty asides as they tell the story keeps things fun. Second, this book has all the classic mystery tropes like people sneaking around in the dead of night, things and people not being what they seem, and convoluted murder attempts. Peters combines suspense with fun. I love it when mysteries don't take themselves too seriously, and this one has just the right combination of farce and gruesomeness.My background is in history, and I also loved listening to Vicky find clues in disintegrating old texts. If you like books in this genre, you'll probably like this book, but you should definitely listen to the audiobook. Usually I don't find the experience of listening to the story makes me enjoy a book more than if I had read it, but in this case, the audio version definitely added to my enjoyment of the book.
—Mdh
Another reread in my nostalgic trip back through a number of “cozy” mysteries. I initially rated this four stars (years after I actually read the book) and I think it is still a four star read for me. The first book in the Vicky Bliss series by Peters (lesser known than her Amelia Peabody books), I thought this was a good intro to the character and her schtick. Vicky is a tall, really curvy blonde and does come up a little too often. But, she also has men occasionally forget how to speak around her, so I think the frequent mentions are fair. Vicky can get a little strident in her feminism but I think it is fair for the time this was written (early 1970s) and probably had elements that ring true for women today working in academia. There is still a stigma that pretty and smart are mutually exclusive. After stumbling on clues about a missing German altar carving from the 16th century, this turns into an almost “Scooby Doo”, gothic farce with Vicky racing against a number of men to make the key discoveries first. One of the men is a colleague of hers and seems convinced that if he can best her, she will be thrilled to marry him. She, like this reader, thinks he’s a total idiot. I enjoyed this romp and all the pseudo-gothic fun of possible ghosts, walking suits of armor and enough secrets passages to make the designers of Clue decided they didn’t include enough in the board game. Not as deep or quite a full of “edu-tainment” as the Amelia Peabody books, I still liked the setting and history here of Germany during a time of class upheaval and chaos. Fun characters and a fun read.
—Andrea
I hear the library keeps Elizabeth Peters' books under lock and key so I had to read one to see what the fuss was all about. I'm not head over heals in love with sleuth, Vicky Bliss, certainly not comparable to the girl crush I had on Nancy Drew and Linda Craig (she had a palomino horse I soooo coveted) when I was in my formative years, but nonetheless I might just be at the infatuation stage, and could possibly move into an "in a relationship" facebook status with this art historian, brainiac female heroine.My first book was a visit to Germany. Can't wait to see where our next rendezvous takes us. Written in the 70s; hoping for the author to move into the 21st century, which she has, but in the meantime I have a lot of reading to do to catch up with her.Fun read.
—Bonnie
