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A review by sullivc5
The Painted Queen by Elizabeth Peters, Joan Hess
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
0.25
It must have been challenging trying to complete the story after Elizabeth Peters's passing. Unfortunately Joan Hess was not up to the challenge. The tone was wrong, basic series history was incorrect, some of the mystery plotting was downright stupid, and all of the characters were inconsistent with the rest of the series. Here are some delightful gems from the novel:
-Emerson and Nefret translate for Peabody because her Arabic isn't very good
-Peabody mentions that Emerson likes to see her without clothes.
-she also weeps into his "manly chest"
-she takes repeated naps and faints
-she finds an argument draining
-Emerson agrees with Christianity
-he also now needs 3 cups of coffee to be coherent in the morning
-Daoud tries to boss Peabody around and is temperamental
-Fatima is bossy and belligerent for some reason...I think they maybe confused her with the dramatic cook from the other books?
-Ramses says Tallyho and later chortles
-while out in disguise, Ramses is given the alias Higginsort by Sethos. It is brought up repeatedly
-At one point, Peabody mentions that the staff like to see it when she and Emerson are physically affectionate with each other. It's a weird sentence until you think about the time, location, and culture that the book is set in and then you are once again reminded how anachronistic this book is.
This is going to seem like a weird aside, but bear with me. Rasputin assumes his name around 1900, wasn't famous in Russia for another 5 years, and likely wouldn't have been known in England for another 2-5 years after that. Despite all this, there is an English character named after Rasputin who is in his mid-twenties when this book is set in 1912. So his English mother would have needed to name her child after a man who wouldn't have been famous in her country for another 20 years. It's the equivalent of naming a child after Obama in 1990. This absolute lack of research and consideration is characteristic of the rest of the novel.
For a casual Peabody fan, I would just skip this one. It adds nothing to the series. For a serious fan, you'll probably have to read it, because it will bother you if you don't. Just know that no matter how bad one particular part is, just wait, because it gets worse.
-Emerson and Nefret translate for Peabody because her Arabic isn't very good
-Peabody mentions that Emerson likes to see her without clothes.
-she also weeps into his "manly chest"
-she takes repeated naps and faints
-she finds an argument draining
-Emerson agrees with Christianity
-he also now needs 3 cups of coffee to be coherent in the morning
-Daoud tries to boss Peabody around and is temperamental
-Fatima is bossy and belligerent for some reason...I think they maybe confused her with the dramatic cook from the other books?
-Ramses says Tallyho and later chortles
-while out in disguise, Ramses is given the alias Higginsort by Sethos. It is brought up repeatedly
-At one point, Peabody mentions that the staff like to see it when she and Emerson are physically affectionate with each other. It's a weird sentence until you think about the time, location, and culture that the book is set in and then you are once again reminded how anachronistic this book is.
This is going to seem like a weird aside, but bear with me. Rasputin assumes his name around 1900, wasn't famous in Russia for another 5 years, and likely wouldn't have been known in England for another 2-5 years after that. Despite all this, there is an English character named after Rasputin who is in his mid-twenties when this book is set in 1912. So his English mother would have needed to name her child after a man who wouldn't have been famous in her country for another 20 years. It's the equivalent of naming a child after Obama in 1990. This absolute lack of research and consideration is characteristic of the rest of the novel.
For a casual Peabody fan, I would just skip this one. It adds nothing to the series. For a serious fan, you'll probably have to read it, because it will bother you if you don't. Just know that no matter how bad one particular part is, just wait, because it gets worse.