The piper on the mountain

This is a beautiful book!. The descriptions that Ms. Peters gives of the mountainous country found in Slovakia in the 1960's are lyrical. It truly sounds a beautiful place! She's also crafted a quite clever mystery centred around a renowned mountain-climber who falls to his death on some rather small hills. This fact is enough for his stepdaughter to question what happened to cause his death, and for her to set out with three friends to find out more about it. The book centres around Sir George Felse's son Dominic, and Ms. Peters has written a wonderful character in this young man. This is a very captivating book!

Fans of Ellis Peters's Inspector George Felse mystery series (the series she wrote before her more famous Brother Cadfael mysteries) will be very pleased with this book. Instead of George Felse, the hero of this story is George's son Dominic, who fans of the series have watched growing from a precocious adolescent to a teenager, and now to a very intelligent young man. On a trip with friends from university, Dominic stumbles accross a death which, although it was ruled an accident, may not have been so accidental after all. Not a little captivated by Tossa, the charming step-daughter of the dead man, he begins to investigate. The result is a clever, engaging mystery/suspense tale that will charm fans of the traditional British mystery.