The Night of Four Hundred Rabbits

Elizabeth Peters is certainly one prolific author, whether she calls herself Barbara Michaels, or whether she goes by her real name, which my sources would not have me disclose, no matter what form of torture is applied. (It does appear, of all places, in Grolier's Multimedia Encyclopedia.) In this novel, Ms. Peters does the wonder of transporting us to a Mexico that never was, with characters handpicked to represent the heyday's of the 60's and 70's, right out of El Zorro, with just a little bit of Tijuana thrown in for good measure. As always, she manages to involve her readers in the most mundane of occurrences, while managing at the same time to make them seem earth-shattering and unique. I have to confess that I, too, at this point, suffer from an addiction to her books, which is perhaps mitigated by the knowledge that it is the medium which allows me the greatest utilization of my free time in order to dissipate my everyday tensions. I heartily recommend this book, which will keep you guessing wrong until the last moment which hero is going to carry off the heroine (or is it heroin?). Anyhow, please do not take this the wrong way, but this book is probably best read with a turist guide to Mexico right at your side, which is probably the way the author composed her book, just using it to refresh her memory for the most note- worthy tourist treasures. Bravo!