The Seventh Sinner

This, the first of the Jacqueline Kirby books, does a wonderful job introducing Ms. Kirby. Just as grown children leave home to start a new phase in their life, so does their middle-aged parents. Jacqueline does a fine job disregarding the past to open up a new and exciting phase in her life which includes helping a group of young graduate students solve a murder. Her intelligence and past experience leaves her prepared for every eventuality! A delightful romp!

Barbara Mertz, also known as Elizabeth Peters, also known as Barbara Michaels has written nonfiction Egyptology books under her own name. As Elizabeth Peters, she is the author of many mysteries, including series starring Amelia Peabody, Vicky Bliss, and Jacqueline Kirby. As Barbara Michaels she has written 29 gothic suspense novels."The Seventh Sinner" is one of Elizabeth Peters's Jacqueline Kirby mysteries, told in the 3rd person by Jean Suttman who is in Rome on an archeological fellowship, and who literally runs down Jacqueline Kirby in a library. Almost as soon as Jean makes friends with Jacqueline, the younger woman witnesses the last few moments of a murder victim, and becomes the next target for the murderer. Other novels in the Jacqueline Kirby series are "Murders of Richard III," "Die for Love," and "Naked Once More." Truthfully---and I know I must belong to a small minority---I like the Jacqueline Kirby books better than those starring Amelia Peabody, which tend to run on a single, dusty Egyptian track. Far better to be in Rome in the spring, even though Jean and Jacqueline are underground in various catacombs too much of the time. At least, they didn't have to spend any subsurface hours in the Cloaca Maximus, which still carries somewhere around one million cubic meters of waste per day.Anyway, this book is more focused on the early Christians, rather than the pagan Romans. There are some fascinating archeological inquiries into the burial sites of Saints Peter and Paul, and of course there is the brooding, claustrophobic atmosphere of underground Rome itself---an important part of this mystery.'Sinner' moves right along and there's no point in warning the heroine to stay out of the catacombs. That's where the final clue to the murder might be found, and Jean is going to find it or die trying. There is the usual, stylish Peters 'humoresque' decorating this mystery---Lots of snappy dialogue and interesting characters to entertain her dedicated readers who may not be all that interested in early Christian archeology.

When I first read this book, I had a hard time getting into it. Don't let that put you off!!! Definitely one of her best!

DO NOT be put off by a tacky cover or title. The Seventh Sinner introduces one of the all time great female, smart "aleck" sleuths in the malice domestic genre, Jaqueline Kirby. Smart, acerbic, very fuuny but a tad condescending, J. Kirby is a great predecessor for current female PI's and detectives now common in the mystery field. The Seventh Sinner is set in Rome where Jake meets up with a group of seven students, the seven sinners, and becomes embroiled in the suicide (or is it murder) of an outsider to the group. Cryptic death messages, death attempts, subterranean crypts, intelligent characters and a pithy conversational style make this a very enjoyable read. Elizabeth Peters, who also writes under the pseudonym Barbara Michaels, is a classical archaeoligist and, as with all her books, incorporates historical and archaelogical elements with the plot. I highly recommend The Seventh Sinner as well as E. Peters other books. Jaqueline Kirby pops up next in The Murder Of Richard III. Be aware of one thing, The Seventh Sinner was written in the early 70s so a few references are slightly out of date, but nothing to disturb the rhythym of the story.

In The Seventh Sinner Elizabeth Peters masterfully "does her thing," as one of the characters in the story might put it. Her "thing," of course, is to turn archeology and history into subjects not only comprehensible but even palatable and intriguing for readers who might nod off in fact-filled lectures and who would shudder if confronted with real bones, let alone a grisly murder.This book will be interesting for Peters' readers. A reissue, it may come as a surprising revelation for those who know Peters primarily from the Amelia Peabody books featuring the adventuting 19th century Egyptologist. The players in The Seventh Sinner are another type of cast entirely from those in the Peabody series.This book features a group of graduate and post-graduatde students working at Rome's famed Institute of Art and Archeology. Some readers may be distracted by details of dress, hairstyle, and "hip" speech which place the story firmly in the early 1970's, but such distreactions are in the end overridden by the strength of the story and in particular by the witty and literate repartee of the characters. As one character remarks, they are "a bright group," if a little naive. The characters definitely make the book a worthwhile read. And while the story unfolds through the observations of one of the students, only a very inexperienced reader or a book jacke blurb writer could perceive Jean Stuttman as the real central character. She happens to be the right sex and the right age (early 20's) with the right ambitions (professions and romantic) to put into the standard romantic suspense novel of the early 1970's.But the central character is mullti-faceted, often enigmatic, middle-aged Jacqueline Kirby, sometime mild-mannered librarian, sometime mom, sometime detective, and never predictable anything. She doesn't want to talk about her kids and defies all attempts to be stereotyped; nevertheless, she becomes the center pole for this artistic, ambitious g! roup who become embroiled in both a modern murder and an ancient mystery in the tombs and churches of the early Christian era which underlie the streets and structures of modern Rome.Of perirheral interest in the book is Dr. Scoville, Senior, father of two members of the student group. He could be the prototype for that later developed and more famous fictional archeologist. He is brilliant, handsome, sexy, and world famous for his daring exploits in pursuit of archeological treasures. Sound familiar, movie fans?In this story, though, the dashing archeologist is a minor player. Jacqueline Kirby is the librarian who sleuths out the answers and convinces the equally dashing Italian police official she is right. Her people sense is as good as her book sense, too. In that way she differs from Amelia Peabody; she thinks things through before charging in. For those readers who like her as much as this reviewer, it is good to know ther are more Peters books reaturing the librarian with the big purse.The