Sunday, December 8, 2013

Review: Elizabeth Peter's River in the Sky, Archeology, Romance, Good Light Reading

A River in the Sky, by Elizabeth Peters... I love the names Peters has given her characters. Emerson and Peabody. Ramses and Nefret. Gargery. Reverend Panagopolous. Even the cat, Horus.I bring this up only because years ago, when I was quite small, I read a book all the way through before I discovered that the heroine's name was ABigail, not aBIgal. Then there were the Sigh-ox Indians. And aGAtha Christie. Ever since, I have to decide before I begin reading how I'm going to mentally pronounce all the names.Emerson is an easy one. Peabody could be Peebody (American) or Pibbidy (English); I went with English (they're English, after all). Ramses, no problem. For Nefret I emphasized the first syllable. Gargery is like Gregory as in Peck. And the reverend? Well, I've always been good at Greek names. And the cat's Horace. Okay, now that we've got pronunciation out of the way, let's talk about the book.A River in the Sky is, according its foreword, "... another volume of her (Mrs. Emerson's) memoirs" and chronicles events that occurred in 1910. The point of view-it is a memoir, after all-is that of Amelia Peabody, who is always referred to as Peabody. The reader doesn't need to get very many pages into the book until it becomes obvious that Peabody is a woman with 21st century sensibilities, despite having been born at the end of the 19th. She may live in an age where women take a secondary role to the men in their lives, but Peabody in no way lets that stand in her way. She is in charge in the family adventures, by hook or by crook, and most of the time by stealth.Professor Emerson is, at least in Peabody's estimation, "... the greatest Egyptologist of this or any other century." He also, according to Peabody, is a man of "splendid physical endowments," including muscles that ripple across the breadth of his chest, becomingly disheveled thick black hair, and sapphirine blue eyes. Gasp! (Bad tempered, though, and is known in the archeology world as "Father of Curses.")Peabody is an accomplished individual, comfortable in a number of languages, is a bit of an expert in Old Testament times, and has acquired a well-deserved reputation as a solver of difficult puzzles. Among the other central characters, Ramses is the Emerson's son; Nefret is their adopted daughter; Gargery, a butler extraordinaire, and Reverend Panagopolous is possibly a minister of the gospel, possibly demented and/or obsessed, possibly-well there are lots of possibilities.The Emerson/Peabody family get themselves into-and out of-some serious scrapes. The tale takes the reader from home base in England through much of the Middle East. I hasten to remind the reader that the Middle East of the late 19th and early 20th century is not the Middle East of today, but it still roils with political, religious and geographical stresses, and is an ideal setting for a mystery novel full of wild characters and much intrigue.Ramses, a budding archeologist, has a lifelong penchant for getting into trouble, and while in the Middle East on a dig, he is kidnapped. His parents, by the time they learn this, have already made plans to go to Palestine to intercept an imposter who may be using a search for an historical relic as a blind for spying activities for Germany. Nefret, to her parents' dismay, decides to save Ramses on her own. Reverend Panagopolous travels with the family, and once the group is underway, there ensues an endless variety of trials and tribulations within different countries, involving a wild assortment of subsidiary characters.How it all works out is, of course, the meat of the story. The characters are consistently inconsistent, and there are surprises all along the way. I made plot assumptions that were promptly discarded and replaced with others to be discarded. Peters gets lots of historical and biblical references and descriptions in amongst the goings-on and they add a sense of authenticity to the book.The overall tone of the novel is, to put it in American-style slang, snarky-as in irreverent or impertinent, a style I mimicked somewhat in this review. But A River in the Sky is a well-told, clever tale, with interesting characters and an entertaining, multi-faceted mystery. I found myself annoyed from time to time with Peabody's manipulations of Emerson, but it didn't get in the way of my enjoyment of the antics described. What else was a smart woman to do, in those times and places?It's a good read, entertaining, not intellectually challenging, but fun. I recommend it.

About Marcia Applegate Retired communications consultant with major firms, writer, columnist, blogger, living in Asheville N.C., moved here from Chicago, love Asheville mountain scenery and people, still miss Chicago, though. Children, Grandchildren, greatgrands scattered across the country. Love reading, of course, love reviewing what I read, and have lots and lots of opinions on this and that.Watch for my new reviews and opinions here and on my blog www.mkamysterylady.comThere is lots to read some plan on spending a little bit of time looking through the site. I always love comments and am looking f

Related Posts :

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)