Trojan Gold (Mass Market Paperback)

This is an light hearted action adventure. The characters are well done, particularly the principals (Vicky, John and Schmidt) much of the situations and dialogue is hilarious.

The only complaints that I have are there are many German terms used with little translation - frustrating for those of us who don't know the language. The other issue is that this is definitely one of those series that needs to be read in order not starting with this the 4th installment (as I did).

Trojan Gold features Vicky Bliss-an art historian who is, to her chagrin, a beautiful buxom blonde (she wants to be respected for her brains, which are formidable, not her beauty). Vicky is a curator at a Munich museum where her boss, Schmidt, is an equally renowned art historian (but one who wants to be respected as a great detective-he's more Santa Claus than Sherlock Holmes). Vicky's sometime lover, "Sir John Smythe," is equally renowned-as a great art thief.

The three of them come together in a frantic search to find Schleiman's lost treasure, the gold from Troy. This has been missing since 1945-when it disappeared in the collapse of Berlin. The search leads Vicky, John and Schmidt to an Alpine village (where they encounter several of Europe's and America's foremost art historians-all searching for the same thing). Just a note on historical background: the gold went missing in 1945 and it was relocated in the former U.S.S.R. after its collapse (Trojan Gold was written before 1989).

It's hard to say who is the best character-Vicky, John (who really is every woman's fantasy of the perfect lover) or Schmidt. The relationship between the three is great (Schmidt is deeply enamored of "Sir John"-whom he does not know is an art thief) and the dialogue will leave you in stitches.

Do not miss out on this one! It's truly great-one of the best books Elizabeth Peters has ever written (and that is saying a lot because she is a fantastic writer!).

In this story, Vicky Blair who is an archaeologist at the Munich National Museum receives a photograph in the mail that shows a woman dressed in what is called the gold of Troy. The envelope has no informative letter and shows no return address. Of course Vicky is interested since the Trojan gold had disappeared right after World War II and its whereabouts has been a mystery. As it turns out, Vicky was not the only one to receive a copy of the photo and she and five other world class archaeologists all come together in Bavaria and compete to be the first to find the treasure for their respective museums.

It did take me a chapter or two to get into the story and obtain some understanding of the main premise. I think that readers might be better off starting with the first book in this series. I must say that once I got a grip on Vicky and the other characters, I really enjoyed this story. The most intriguing character is that of John Smythe or Sir John as Vicky sometimes refers to him. Again, I guess there is more of an explanation of his character in the earlier stories. Well, John was great and we just got enough of him to make him mysterious, charming and in many ways the most interesting character in Trojan Gold.

This author has the ability to combine love and mystery, add some historic facts, mix them all altogether and give us some really good books. She also never goes too far with her romantic passages, and she has the good sense to know that a light touch of romance is much more captivating and exactly what her readers want.

Since, I plan to read the other books in this series, I've looked up the titles and here they are in the correct reading sequence: 1. Borrower of the Night, 2. Street of the Five Moons, 3. Silhouette in Scarlet, 4. Trojan Gold and 5. Night Train to Memphis.