Scan barcode
A review by casstirling
Summer of the Dragon by Elizabeth Peters
5.0
T;LDR: D.J. Abbott accepts a summer position at a rich man's Arizona ranch for some secret purpose only the rich man, Hank, knows. After a few falls and broken gadgets, Hank goes missing. Can D.J. find Hank before its too late? And will the knowledge she gains while searching for him get her killed?
I have reread this book many times and is one of my favs, so I'm not going to be particularly unbiased in my review here.
What I liked:
I love that D.J. loves to eat and does so, a lot. I love her sense of humor, that while gullible in other ways, she's not gullible when it comes to the crackpots who roam the ranch. I love that I learned all about Atlantis, aliens, and all the other crazy theories that people believed enough to write books about them.
I love the friend character in Mary Jo, the maid, and the fact that D.J. doesn't even think of her as anything less than a friendly person. I like that Hank can be both laid back and casual, but also straightforward and ruthless when he needs to be. He has more depth than he could have with another author.
This book has one of Elizabeth Peter's trademarks - a sexy guy who spends most of the book in a snark fight with the heroine. And while I know it's part of her pattern, I still love it anyway. Tom De Karsky might be modeled on Tom Sellecks' Magnum PI character (the mustache alone gives it away) and the sexy appeal of his mustache might be a bit dated, but he's still an intelligent, no-nonsense kind of guy.
What I didn't Like
This is where my review diverges. There's really not much I don't like about this book - it means too much to me. So, instead of focusing on what I didn't like, I'm going to feature the top common critiques from other reviewers.
One of the top review lacks for this book is how obvious the mystery/villain(s) is/are. At this point in time, I can't tell you if that's true because I read it for the first time in my teens. So, yeah, it's obvious to me now. But if I dig deep, I could see why they say that.
Other commentary against the book is that the plot is thin. That's possible. We spend more time watching D.J. interact with the crackpots than we do progressing the plot, but that's because the crackpots are part of the plot...in a way (no spoilers). But also, you don't read this book for its denseness, but instead as a light and fun read. So, I'm going to disagree that this is a negative against the book.
Another common negative is the cardboard characterization, too much bickering, and lack of depth in the characters presented. I disagree with that. There are a lot of characters in this book. If she gave all of the secondary characters the room they needed to be fully fleshed out, it'd be massive...and boring. And the bickering is part of her tone and style of writing. If you don't like it here, you'll probably not like many of her other books.
I never find her characters lacking. Are there similarities across some of her books? Absolutely. But I still enjoy reading them, so maybe this book and the other similar books are my guilty pleasure reads. Maybe.
But I don't think so.
To Sum Up (too late!)
Overall, if you snarky heroines who eat too much, sexy men with mustaches, learning about all of the crazy theories that people exist out there, and a light-hearted fun read, this book is for you.
I have reread this book many times and is one of my favs, so I'm not going to be particularly unbiased in my review here.
What I liked:
I love that D.J. loves to eat and does so, a lot. I love her sense of humor, that while gullible in other ways, she's not gullible when it comes to the crackpots who roam the ranch. I love that I learned all about Atlantis, aliens, and all the other crazy theories that people believed enough to write books about them.
I love the friend character in Mary Jo, the maid, and the fact that D.J. doesn't even think of her as anything less than a friendly person. I like that Hank can be both laid back and casual, but also straightforward and ruthless when he needs to be. He has more depth than he could have with another author.
This book has one of Elizabeth Peter's trademarks - a sexy guy who spends most of the book in a snark fight with the heroine. And while I know it's part of her pattern, I still love it anyway. Tom De Karsky might be modeled on Tom Sellecks' Magnum PI character (the mustache alone gives it away) and the sexy appeal of his mustache might be a bit dated, but he's still an intelligent, no-nonsense kind of guy.
What I didn't Like
This is where my review diverges. There's really not much I don't like about this book - it means too much to me. So, instead of focusing on what I didn't like, I'm going to feature the top common critiques from other reviewers.
One of the top review lacks for this book is how obvious the mystery/villain(s) is/are. At this point in time, I can't tell you if that's true because I read it for the first time in my teens. So, yeah, it's obvious to me now. But if I dig deep, I could see why they say that.
Other commentary against the book is that the plot is thin. That's possible. We spend more time watching D.J. interact with the crackpots than we do progressing the plot, but that's because the crackpots are part of the plot...in a way (no spoilers). But also, you don't read this book for its denseness, but instead as a light and fun read. So, I'm going to disagree that this is a negative against the book.
Another common negative is the cardboard characterization, too much bickering, and lack of depth in the characters presented. I disagree with that. There are a lot of characters in this book. If she gave all of the secondary characters the room they needed to be fully fleshed out, it'd be massive...and boring. And the bickering is part of her tone and style of writing. If you don't like it here, you'll probably not like many of her other books.
I never find her characters lacking. Are there similarities across some of her books? Absolutely. But I still enjoy reading them, so maybe this book and the other similar books are my guilty pleasure reads. Maybe.
But I don't think so.
To Sum Up (too late!)
Overall, if you snarky heroines who eat too much, sexy men with mustaches, learning about all of the crazy theories that people exist out there, and a light-hearted fun read, this book is for you.