The Tomb of Zeus

What a lot of fun! Barbara Cleverly consistently delivers interesting locales and histories. This new series with Laetitia Talbot is reminiscent of the Maisie Dobbs books. It is a real joy to read.

Set in the '20s, Laetitia Talbot is a modern Bright Young Thing, with brains, education and a highly respected mentor to recommend her--and her family's money to help her out. She's got the experience to supervise a dig team and lands in Crete where at the Villa Europa, Theodore Russell hopes to equal the great finds made by Sir Arthur Evans at the Palace of Knossos. He hopes to find the Tomb of Zeus and has tapped Letty to lead one of the digs. But all is not just archaeology at the Villa Europa. Crete has had a bloody history, most recently between the Greeks and the Turks with intercession by the British--events that still affect the current day. And there was the bloody Great War that haunts the past of some. The ancient past as well as the recent past all play a part in a series of events that come to a head with the mysterious death at Villa Europa. The mystery is slow to build, but there is complexity and twists and red-herrings. The glimpses into the recent past and the more distant past were interesting. Letty is a strange mix of the old and new, with the exuberance of youth and of the new opportunities open to women. It's a bit jarring at times, but brings the period to life.

First Sentence: The big gates were in sight and were standing open. Laetitia Talbot is an aspiring archaeologist who has come to Crete. There she finds a man she's known before, her host, Theodore Russell who is looking for the Tomb of Zeus and has assigned Laetitla a site for her dig, and his charismatic wife, Phoebe. Laetitia finds Phoebe hanged, doesn't believe it to be a suicide and joins forces with the local police to find the killer. I really enjoyed this book on many levels. The character isn't flamboyant, such as Kate Greenwood's Phryne Fisher, whom I enjoy, and isn't egotistically irritating, such as Elizabeth Peter's Amelia Peabody. In fact, the book and protagonist reminded me a bit of Mary Stewart's suspense novels in that the protagonist is smart, independent and resourceful. Cleverly provides a very strong sense of place and history, and I learned about both, which I really enjoy from a book. From the prologue to the end, Cleverly does give you all the clues to the solution; but they are subtle and you really have to pay attention to catch them. Both the story and the characters were revealed rather as the layers of an onion; the further you went, the more you learned. I enjoyed each new revelation as it was given and had the occasional "oh, wow" reaction. I'm not a big fan of the amateur sleuth, so I really appreciated that, in the end, it was the police who solve the mystery. There's a little bit of a romance, which adds to the fun. The only slight negative I had was that Cleverly occasionally went off on archaeological tangents that, while fascinating, slowed down the story a bit. Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and hope we'll see more of Laetitia.

I enjoyed this novel more than the Joe Sandilands series. Cleverly uses the device of the prologue again and to great effect. As usual, the seeds of the story are sown in the very early chapters (though they may be too subtle for the inattentive reader!) Links are made through time and myth and, at the end of the book, we meet (in other guise) a character who has been there right from the very start. Cleverly always plays fair with the reader and the clues to the primary and the secondary murders are hidden in plain sight - for those with eyes to see - resulting in one satisfying solution. As well as a first rate mystery, we are treated to a wonderfully evocative setting, intriguing characters and ideas that linger long after the last page.

In 1927 wealthy Laetitia Talbot comes to Crete to sponsor a dig. Famous archeologist Theo Russell directs the patron to the Mountain of Juktas to a location he already selected where he believes THE TOMB OF ZEUS is buried. Laetitia takes an instant dislike to the pushy man, but adores his wife Phoebe. Before going to the village of Kastelli where the team will be based for the dig, Phoebe escorts Laetitia to the ruins of Knosses where her new friend suffers a fainting spell and is brought back to her villa. There are sores all over Phoebe's legs that Laetitia believes come from wearing tight boots. Shortly afterward Phoebe is found dead in her room; an apparent suicide. Laetitia does not believe the woman killed herself, especially when she learns Phoebe was pregnant but not carrying Theo's child. Instead the site patron digs amongst the ruins of lives to uncover the murderous truth. Readers of historical mysteries and armchair time travelers will thoroughly enjoy this wonderful whodunit. Besides the vivid look at Crete during the golden age of archeology, fans will ponder whether the heroine is wrong as there are few suspects with a motive to kill Phoebe; increasingly suicide seems right yet Laetitia stubbornly believes otherwise based on her short time with the woman. Barbara Cleverly explores the culture of Crete in great depth so that her audience can fully visualize what was back in ancient time and what was in 1927-28; an era used as a setting in modern literature for great female sleuths (Phryne Fisher and Maisie Dobbs) and now amateur sleuth fans have one more. Harriet Klausner