Night Train to Memphis (Hardcover)

In this 1994 adventure, the 5th, and unfortunately latest, in the Vicky Bliss series Dr. Vicky Bliss is approached to foil a planned robbery of Egyptian artifacts from the Cario museum. She is asked to pose as an expert on a Nile cruise, a cruise geared for amateur Egyptolists. Vicky protested her unsuitablity for this assignment until she realized that the suspected thief was none other than her sometime lover, the mysterious "Sir John Smythe".

Naturally Vicky does join the group, and does find her lover there - along with his mother and new bride. The adventure then takes off at a typical Peters breakneck pace, filled with bodies, false identities, lies, wild chases through the desert night, fantastic escapes and....well if you've read any of Peter's work you get the picture and if you haven't you should, just don't start with this one.

For fans of Peter's work there are many wonderful little treats in this one, John claims a name from his past as his own, hints at a long family connection to Egypt (could his real last name be Emerson?), Schmidt is developed as more than a cardboard comic character, a husband and wife Egyptologist team of the past century is mentioned and a 'writer of popular Egyptian mystery adventures' makes a cameo apprearance.

This is a particularly fun read, only marred by the fact that it is the last Vicky Bliss - so far - I refuse to give up hope!

In NIGHT TRAIN TO MEMPHIS, Vicky Bliss is asked by a police agency to be a part of a tour group as they cruise down the Nile River seeing the beautiful monuments and ancient pyramids of Egypt. The police suspect that some professional thieves will be on board and hope that Vicky can assist in identifying them. The characters are diverse and of course, Sir John Smythe also shows up for the tour. Vicky's dismayed to find him using a different name and traveling with a sweet young woman. Just a few months before the tour, John and Vicky had resumed their love affair and now she's thoroughly confused by the way that he's acting. There are a lot of surprises in this story.

I found it amazing to see that out of 32 reviews on this book, 30 reviewers gave this story a Five Star Rating. That has got to be some kind of a record. It shows what an excellent writer that Elizabeth Peters is and how she always delivers great fiction.