The Seventh Sinner (Jacqueline Kirby, #1)

by Elizabeth Peters

At first, Jean Suttman thought she had died and gone to Heaven when she was granted the opportunity to study in Rome. But the body that's lying in the ancient subterranean Temple of Mithra--the murdered corpse of a repulsive and disliked fellow student--isn't her idea of heavenly. 

Now she is truly frightened, not just because small "accidents" seem to be occurring around her with disturbing regularity. It's the ever-increasing certainty that someone, for some unknown reason, is ruthlessly determined to do her harm. 

Jean's innocent underground excursion into a sacred pagan place has trapped her in something dark and terrifying, and even the knowledge that practical, perceptive fellow American Jacqueline Kirby is on the case won't ease her fears. Because there's only so far Jean Suttman can run . . . and no escape for her except death.

• ISBN10: 0396065201
• ISBN13: 9780396065203
• Publish Date: 1 April 1972
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 15 June 2011
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: W. Clement Stone
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 260
• Language: English

Reviews

[MurderByDeath]

Well, they can't all be winners.

I'm a fan of the Vicki Bliss series and I've enjoyed several of Ms. Peters stand-alones.  I've read a few Jacqueline Kirby stories and enjoyed them, but this one... meh.

The opening chapter and dialogue grabbed me right away and I thought "Oh goody, another fun read" but it quickly fizzled out for me.  I found myself struggling to understand a lot of the dialogue; it felt vague and choppy - almost like the author was speaking a shorthand she assumed all her readers would be clued into.  Jacqueline Kirby is a main character, but the story is told from the 3rd person POV of Jean, an art history fellow, so the reader is never privy to Kirby's thoughts unless she chooses to share them with Jean.   The middle portion of the book moved a bit slowly and my attention flagged.

The mystery though, was fiendishly clever.  I'd have to read it again to be sure, but I think all the clues were there to figure out what was going on, if not exactly who the murderer was (that required information the police had, which wasn't revealed to the reader).  I quite liked the denouement - that scene definitely had my attention.

The book ended rather abruptly, I thought, but I suppose that the ending was consistent with the abruptness of the rest of the narrative/dialogue.  

I'm not at all sorry I read it; I'll even keep it on the bookshelf and perhaps re-read it one of these days, but it's definitely not Ms. Peters best work by a long shot.  Still, her mediocre output is still better than a lot of some authors' best work, and I'll continue to search out her books.