A River in the Sky

A River in the Sky by Elizabeth Peters is the sort of novel I would read if I had nothing else to do, but I got a copy for free and had to test out my Kindle’s audio somehow, so I gave it a listen.

Not bad; the whole suspense/mystery genre is not something I even like, but I found the reader’s voices and interpretation of characters compelling enough that I finished the whole thing (I must admit I am also slightly compulsive and might have finished it just because I hate leaving things undone).  Barbara Rosenblatt makes the male voices particularly interesting, which is lucky because all the other main characters are male.

The Amelia Peabody character (apparently there are a whole slug of these novels) narrates, the wife of a (fictional) famous British archeologist in Victorian-era Palestine uncovering plots by the dastardly Hun (who else?  Bullshot Crummond, anyone?*). It’s nice to see a treatment that seems to carry some of the flavor of that time and space, but over all, I am not truly thrilled by it.  It is not a fault of the book per se; it’s just not my cup of tea. It isn’t quite enough to appeal to my love of Victoriana. I think this is probably a good read for people who like this sort of thing—just not me.

*And did I use enough parentheses?