a) It’s a murder mystery,
b) It’s about a female archaeologist in the 1920s, and
c) It’s set in Greece (okay, Crete) with Greek mythology.
I’m sorry, but how could I pass that up?
In The Tomb of Zeus Laetitia Talbot goes to stay with an archaeologist and his family and quickly becomes embroiled in the family’s drama. Laetitia befriends the archaeologist’s young wife, Phoebe, and his son George but when Phoebe is found, hanged, in her bedroom, and George drives his car off a cliff, Laetitia takes it upon herself to find the murderer and bring him or her to justice. You have to imagine her with a hardcore super-sleuth voice when she says "A coward and an adulterer. Yes but are you a murderer?" And to add on that, Laetitia is working at a dig site that could reveal one of the island’s darkest secrets.
It turns out The Tomb of Zeus is actually the first book in the trilogy, I was under the impression that it was the third. Around the middle, the story gets a bit harder to understand, which I attributed to the book not being the first in the series, but I guess I was wrong.
The Tomb of Zeus is written well, and Laetitia (or Letty as she’s called) is a strong and feisty character, armed with plenty of witty retorts to sexist comments. The fact that it’s set in the 20s doesn’t really impact the story; it seems to be there purely for the conceptions of what a woman’s role should be during that time period and to provide Letty with another obstacle she has to deal with. Letty is a very well-drawn character and her personality and her character is revealed throughout the course of the book. I reckon the one problem with the writing was that Barbara Cleverly sometimes went off on tangents, slowing the story down, but otherwise The Tomb of Zeus is really good.
"If ever a man had the ability to stir up storm clouds its [SPOILERSPOILERSPOLER]" Sorry, I guess you'll just have to read it now.
Feisty chick-o-meter: 9/10
Age rating: 15+
Rating: 8.5/10
Stand alone or series: Series
Book or audiobook: Book
Last word: Hooves
No comments:
Post a Comment