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A review by crownoflaurel
The Painted Queen by Elizabeth Peters, Joan Hess
3.0
Much more comical in tone, reminiscent of her very early work vs how this series became much more serious over time. The murderous Godwins were more the type of buffoonery that marks Die for Love, or her other stand-alones.
And it suffers from the usual issues that result from going back and trying to insert another adventure into the timeline. Sethos is treated as a friendly paterfamilias, like he has been in last few books, although at this point that specific revelation doesn’t happen for another few years. And Nefret’s repetitious discussion of Geoffrey both detracts from how her ptsd is treated later, and is in direct opposition to how she supposedly never mentions him again...?
I’m sure this is the best it could have been. I’m thankful for these characters, but I’m glad this is the end of their ride.
And it suffers from the usual issues that result from going back and trying to insert another adventure into the timeline. Sethos is treated as a friendly paterfamilias, like he has been in last few books, although at this point that specific revelation doesn’t happen for another few years. And Nefret’s repetitious discussion of Geoffrey both detracts from how her ptsd is treated later, and is in direct opposition to how she supposedly never mentions him again...?
I’m sure this is the best it could have been. I’m thankful for these characters, but I’m glad this is the end of their ride.