You are currently browsing the daily archive for May 1, 2009.
So, you are the daughter of a nineteenth century professor, and the ancient Egyptian mummy owned by your father wakes up for the first time in 3000 years or so; what do you do?
Well in this case you dress him up in Dad’s top hat and tailcoat and swan around London arm in arm, all the while falling in love. But inevitably there are misunderstandings and parental disapproval on both sides to stand in the way of true love. Plus Her Majesty Queen Victoria ending up in the Thames…
This is a lovely book, a sweet story beautifully illustrated and, according to the blurb inside the cover, best enjoyed with romantic company and a pot of fine Darjeeling (though I would always go for Earl Grey myself.)
So, cards on the table, I really, really like Tess Gerritsen. I like the fact that her two main recurring characters are women. I like the fact that her books are pacy and easy to read. I like the fact that the plots are nicely judged so that they are a bit (but not too) complicated. I like the fact that there is just enough bloody murder to satisfy the gorehounds but not so much that the crime fan who’s a bit squeamish about the whole serial killer thing will be put off. The Mephisto Club fits the bill, and I lapped it up.
I’m not even going to attempt to explain the plot because the whole point of a good crime/detective novel is not to know what’s going to happen in advance and then having the fun of trying to work it out yourself. So here we have dismemberment, ancient symbols, mirror-writing, revenge, evil, an elite group with a mysterious purpose and all the right connections, a long-buried secret, and lots and lots and lots of blood. What’s not to like?
I absolutely adore anything with a decent secret society; even though I don’t believe any of them really exist, the idea of some kind of cabal running the world, or at least a little bit of the world, or maybe just having influence in a particular sphere, manages to be both comforting and worrying at the same time.
Failed once again to work out the murderer but still huge fun.
Bride of the Book God 