Scan barcode
smcleish's review against another edition
4.0
Originally published on my blog here in October 2000.
From the title, it would perhaps be reasonable to assume that this early Elizabeth Peters' novel is one of her silliest, but in fact it is a fairly straightfaced thriller. Jessica Tregarth has come to England on her grandfather's invitation, but is alarmed to find herself being followed around tourist spots like Salisbury Cathedral and having her luggage searched, to the point of hiding on a local bus (where the most amusing scene of the novel occurs, in whhich respectable villagers conceal her and lie inventively to the "gangsters" chasing her).
The plot is typical of the thrillers of the style perhaps best exemplified by [a:Mary Stewart|15590|Mary Stewart|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1210367214p2/15590.jpg] - though to a certain extent it is satirising poorer examples of this subgenre. The Camelot Caper has signs of parody - the way that successive scenes work their way through most of the best known tourist sites in South West England, for example, but it is really more lighthearted than uproarious. An enjoyable feature of the novel is the vacillation of the heroine between terror and the feeling that she is making something out of nothing, like in [b:Northanger Abbey|50398|Northanger Abbey|Jane Austen|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328753190s/50398.jpg|4039699] (a parallel she quotes).
From the title, it would perhaps be reasonable to assume that this early Elizabeth Peters' novel is one of her silliest, but in fact it is a fairly straightfaced thriller. Jessica Tregarth has come to England on her grandfather's invitation, but is alarmed to find herself being followed around tourist spots like Salisbury Cathedral and having her luggage searched, to the point of hiding on a local bus (where the most amusing scene of the novel occurs, in whhich respectable villagers conceal her and lie inventively to the "gangsters" chasing her).
The plot is typical of the thrillers of the style perhaps best exemplified by [a:Mary Stewart|15590|Mary Stewart|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1210367214p2/15590.jpg] - though to a certain extent it is satirising poorer examples of this subgenre. The Camelot Caper has signs of parody - the way that successive scenes work their way through most of the best known tourist sites in South West England, for example, but it is really more lighthearted than uproarious. An enjoyable feature of the novel is the vacillation of the heroine between terror and the feeling that she is making something out of nothing, like in [b:Northanger Abbey|50398|Northanger Abbey|Jane Austen|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328753190s/50398.jpg|4039699] (a parallel she quotes).
raehink's review against another edition
2.0
An OK mystery written by Barbara Mertz (who writes as Elizabeth Peters)...I enjoy her Egypt mysteries much better.
missmarketpaperback's review against another edition
4.0
This book has been on my tbr for a while. I loved this goofy romp. The heroines flight had me on the edge of my seat. The romance was creepy at times but also cute. In the end, I liked the plot, but John’s violence made me dislike him (despite being a big Vicky Bliss fan).
thecourtface's review against another edition
3.0
Eh, it wasn't bad. Not my favorite (even though David was highly amusing) of Peters, but it was entertaining. I felt the plot was a bit of a stretch and the book itself was disjointed; several times I was confused as to what was going on and other times it seemed very hastily thrown together. The characters saved it, for me. And the Tolkien references/jokes. :)
More...