The Laughter of Dead Kings

October 27, 2008
Barbara Rosenblat is the perfect performer for a caper that whirls the listener in and out of Egyptian tombs and the glories of Luxor. Some murder and mayhem are tossed in, but they’re almost tangential. Rosenblat captures all the wit and deductive skills of Vicki Bliss, an American art curator/detective, but also conveys her down-to-earth side. However, for all her many talents, Rosenblat is surprisingly inept with foreign accents. The overblown German accent of Vicki’s boss, Schmidt, works well for the larger-than-life bon vivant, but John, Vicki’s fellow sleuth and love interest, teeters in and out of various British accents, and the Egyptian accents of the locals are totally off. Nevertheless, characters’ voices are quite distinctive, so don’t worry about getting lost in a verbal desert. Rosenblat’s overall performance and rapid-fire pacing make this overlong book more enjoyable in audio form than on the printed page. A William Morrow hardcover (Reviews, July 7).

July 7, 2008
Fans of bestseller Peters's Vicky Bliss series will welcome her solid sixth suspense novel to feature the plucky art historian, last seen in Night Train to Memphis
(1994). In Munich, where Vicky is an assistant curator at the city's National Museum, she and her longtime love, John Tregarth (formerly Sir John Smythe, notorious art thief), are shocked when their friend Feisal, the “Inspector of Antiquities for all Upper Egypt,” arrives unexpectedly and informs them that King Tut's mummy has been stolen from its tomb in the Valley of the Kings and that John is the prime suspect. Vicky and company, including her inquisitive boss, set off on a whirlwind quest beginning in Europe and ending in the Egyptian desert to clear John's name and recover the famous corpse. In compensation for a slower pace than in earlier books, Peters offers vivid descriptions of Egyptian landmarks, which will resonate with readers of the MWA Grand Master's beloved Amelia Peabody historical series.