Michaels, Barbara - Into the Darkness

[oyceter]

Meg Venturi's grandfather Dan has just died and left her half of his business. Unfortunately, Meg spent most of her life trying to get out of the jewelry industry, and even worse, the other half belongs to Dan's new partner Riley, who's silent, grumpy, and suspected to be a murderer.

While Meg's in town dealing with funeral arrangements, she receives some mysterious threats. Soon, she's trying to untangle why people hate Riley, who's sending the threats, and if her previously mean cousin Cliff's current niceness is real or fake.

I didn't take rachelmanija's advice and read this before I was very acquainted with the Gothic genre. On the other hand, I think I caught most of its commentary on genre conventions. I particularly love the housekeeper who roleplays assorted fictional housekeepers depending on her mood and the callout to Mrs. Danvers, but mostly, what I like about the book is how it comments on the gendered conventions in gothics.

Meg is so not an ingenue; she's grumpy and independent and doesn't allow herself to be intimidated by anyone. I also liked how she basically acted exactly like Dan, only Dan's behavior was accepted because he was male while hers is seen as more suspect because she's female. And the guys end up being the damsels in distress! Even more, I love the ending, which has Meg not only kicking ass, but using all her resources and brains and guts. The romance also worked for me.

In conclusion: highly enjoyable.

So if I want to pick up more Barbara Michaels, which ones should I read?

Comments

[slrose.livejournal.com]

She also writes as Elizabeth Peters.

It's been too long since I read Barbara Michaels for me to make recommendations, but the Elizabeth Peters I reread most often is Summer of the Dragon. I love the heroine's voice -- she's very snarky.

[oyceter]

Thanks! I've been a little intimated by the sheer number of books she's written, so I think I may focus on her books as Michaels now, but it's good to have an extensive backlist!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I haven't read many of her Michaels books (I have a lot of them, I just haven't read them yet, though I have read all of her books written as Elizabeth Peters) but I remember really liking Otherworlds a while back.

[oyceter]

Cool, thanks!

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

This is one of my favorites of hers. I like Meg and Riley a lot, and also the jewelry details and the role-playing housekeeper.

Michaels run-down:

Someone in the House: Fun, weird haunted house story that's a commentary on the whole genre of "girl gets house."

Shattered Silk: This one is not Gothic at all, but reminded me a bit of Jennifer Crusie's more actiony novels. Girl gets vintage clothing store, hijinks ensue.

The Sea King's Daughter: Set in Greece, very atmospheric.

Houses of Stone: Really interesting, explicitly feminist premise involving a lost manuscript by a female author; unfortunately, the romance plot was dull.

A lot of hers I vaguely recall enjoying but no details. Wait! Details! http://rachelmanija.livejournal.com/tag/author:+michaels+barbara

[violetage.livejournal.com]

I second the Shattered Silk suggestion. I also liked the Dancing Floor. Really all of her books are entertaining. :)

[oyceter]

Got it, thanks!

[oyceter]

Ooo thanks! Vintage clothing for the win!

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

This is one of my favorites of hers under that name, but her Elizabeth Peters books are also great. Most people I know who read her do it for her Amelia Peabody books, about an Egyptian archeologist working in the glory days of the profession and interacting with people like Wallace Budge and Howard Carter. I prefer her Vicky Bliss books, about a curator who gets involved in various mystery plots and interacts with a charming, irritable, Peter Wimsey-esque professional thief. She also has a very short series of books (three or four, I think) with Jacqueline Kirby, a librarian, that are a lot of fun.

Others of her Michaels-authored books I liked are Ammie, Come Home (well, it scared the pants off of me), Search the Shadows, and Smoke and Mirrors.

[oyceter]

Oooo, thief! Librarian!

Thanks for the recs!

[cofax7]

I enjoy Barbara Michaels, but I admit that they all kind of blur together for me. I like the Elizabeth Peters novels more, since they're more straightforwardly funny, like the Vicky Bliss series. I would not recommend going past 3rd or 4th in the Amelia Peabody novels, though: I found the kids insufferable.

Still, I am supportive of you reading Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters. She's very amusing.

[oyceter]

Gotcha, thanks! I think the Vicky Bliss ones sound good.. professional thief!

[sajia.livejournal.com]

This sounds almost like the "what if romance novels had a Pratchett done on them" that I was thinking of recently.

[oyceter]

Hee! I don't think they're quite as goofy as Pratchett's might have been (particularly the narrative voice), but they're still pretty fun.

[lanerobins.livejournal.com]

I'm really fond of some of her earliest ones (though I feel guilty about it, because the gender roles are pretty well defined!) House of Many Shadows has a secretary with a head injury living in an old mansion with a caretaker who has emotional trauma, and of course. . . . Strange Things begin to happen.

But for sheer weirdness--where she wasn't quite channeling the gothic novel, but something even stranger? The Dark on the Other Side, which may or may not involve a werewolf. And Prince of Darkness which is all about those wacky satanists. . . .

[oyceter]

Sheer weirdness is good!

[issen4.livejournal.com]

All of them! ^_^ If you read Shattered Silk, though, she wrote a sort-of sequel, Stitches in Time. Most of Michaels' books are great: the early ones are more gothic-esque, but many books centered around a mysterious house/estate, a staple of gothic. But with much better heroines.

Try the Elizabeth Peters books too!

[oyceter]

Oh cool, thanks! I think I will try the Vicky Bliss ones too: professional thief sounds like fun.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

I think you will enjoy her book Die For Love, written as Elisabeth Peters, which does for romance fandom what Bimbos Of The Death Sun did for pre-internet SF fandom.

[oyceter]

Oh, that sounds awesome, thanks!