Review: Borrower of the Night (Vicky Bliss Series #1) by Elizabeth Peters

in a sentence or two: Vicky Bliss is hot on the trail for what she hopes to be the missing Riemenschneider art piece. unfortunately, finding it in the seemingly haunted gothic castle might not be as easy as it seems...

Vicky is described in the opening chapters as quite the hottie. though, she does not consider this to be an asset in her life. she's tall, big (in the right places), blonde and blue-eyed. she's envious of those little sharp-featured dark haired lovelies in the world, but what can you do. she's smart, determined, and has quite a knack for adventure and mystery.

while talking with her on again/off again boy-toy Tony, she discovers what might be the clue to a missing art piece. unable to resist the temptation to spend her summer in Germany trying to discover its location, she makes plans to go unravel the secrets and find the sculpture hidden in Rothenburg. specifically, the Schloss Drachenstein.

while competing with Tony (who also wants to find it to prove his superiority to her in a romantic way) and George (the man who just has to have everything worth having), Vicky and pals discover that not all is as it should be at the Schloss. they are caught snooping - repeatedly - and no one even bats an eye. suspicious. between trying to find the missing sculpture, avoid what very well might be ghosts sliding around the castle at nighttime, attending seances at the Schloss owner's request, and unraveling the mysteries that lie in the castle - this is a pretty busy book. i never fancied myself as someone who would really like mystery/suspense, but Peter's sucked me right in.

i absolutely adored Vicky's voice. she's clever, snarky, sarcastic, dead-pan, resourceful and independent. i have a feeling i will be meeting her again in the future (i seriously plan on reading more of her series). i'm pretty blown away this was written in 1973. it felt super modern.

fave quote: (hard to choose, because as noted, Vicky is pretty snarky and i really enjoyed that) "If there is anything worse than being a tall girl, it is being a tall smart girl" (1)

fix er up: the ending wasn't totally a surprise to me, but i don't think that ruined the overall appeal. the journey was the exciting part, not the conclusion.

title: Borrower of the Night (Vicky Bliss Series #1)
author: Elizabeth Peters
genre: Mystery, Adventure, Lisa's Faves