Fast paced read. Very good.

Share/Like this Review?

Didn't like it as much as the other Jacquelines -- it seemed to drag in the middle. (Even at that, I liked it better than the Amelias!) Admittedly, it is very funny in parts, and it's worth reading (or, at least, skimming) to set up Naked Once More.

Share/Like this Review?

A deliciously easy read with great romance & mystery spun around very funny characterizations!

Share/Like this Review?

Not an Amelia, but fun.

Share/Like this Review?

Don't be put off by the lurid cover which has nothing to do with the book (where DO they get these covers?). This is very funny and very good!

Share/Like this Review?

I love Elizbeth Peters mysteries. This is one of the Jacqueline Kirby series. It is set amidst a romance writer's convention and is a terrific satire on the whole romance genre. It's a very funny book with a good mystery.

Share/Like this Review?

From the author of the popular Amelia Peabody, Egyptian anthropologist/sleuth series, another twisty-plotted novel.
Jacqueline Kirby is a college librarian with a mordant wit and an inveterate penchant for getting into trouble. Amid the pink and purple prose of a romance writers' convention, she sticks her nose into bloody, red murder. But her prying ways may get her into as much trouble as the bodice-rippers' heroines.
A fun read!

From back cover: ---Is murder tax-deductible?
Jacqueline Kirby decided to get away from the weather and doldrums at Coldwater College in Nebraska. A trip to New York would be ideal and since she is the assistant head librarian at the college, she can take the trip as a tax-deductible professional expense: She will attend the converntion of the Historical Romance Writers of the World.
The visit is everything that Jacqueline thought it would be and more. Much more. First, Dubretta Duberstein, the scandal columnist, dies under mysterious circumstances. She DID have a bad heart, of course, but... Then, one of the most popular of the writers at the convention, Valerie Valentine, asks Jacqueline for help. Someone, it seems, is threatening to kill the novelist.

Share/Like this Review?

A 1984 Elizabeth Peters tongue-in-sheek look at the Romance Writers of America.

Share/Like this Review?

A murder at a Historical Romance Writer's convention sets the scene.

Share/Like this Review?

While at a recent library sale and, having heard that Peters was an excellent mystery author, I picked up several of her books.

I am somewhat disappointed in her Jacqueline Kirby novels. The first two books in this series were not as good as I had hoped. In fact, I started skimming the text about half-way through each so as not to lose contact with the plot, but to still finish the books as soon as possible.

This third novel in the series was much better. Almost all of it takes place in a Romance novel convention and the characters attending such made the story more interesting. In fact, the book reminded me of Sharon McCrumb's "Bimbos of the Death Sun" (an Edgar Allen Poe award winning novel) that takes place at a sci-fi convention. I really enjoyed that book, although its sequel was a bomb.

Meanwhile, I have some of the mysteries in Peters' archeological series. When I get around to reading them, I hope they are more interesting than the ones featuring Jacqueline Kirby.

Share/Like this Review?