Borrower of the Night (1973)

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Vicky Bliss #1

 Dr. Vicky Bliss--a brilliant academic hampered by her considerable beauty in a sexist society that sees buxom blondes as playboy bunnies--sets off in pursuit of a long-lost work of sixteenth century art by the great woodcarver Riemenschnieder. Competing against her is her lovelorn co-worker Tony, determined to win her heart by finding the artwork first, a violently mercenary businessman, and a handful of other characters whose intentions might be benign or not, including what might be the reincarnation of a medieval noblewoman burned for witchcraft hundreds of years ago...

Spoilers Below

MPM took what she delivered in Sinner and expanded on it, with the addition of a fiercely knowledgeable lampooning of the gothic thrillers she wrote under her other pen name.

The setting, of course (because what else could it be?), is a ruined German castle, inhabited by its young and delicate countess, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the aforementioned noblewoman burned for witchcraft. Fear not though; what might have been pure Gothic becomes pure spoof in MPM's experienced hands, with enough of a chill to make the unmasking delightful. There are moonlight chases, grave robberies, and crypt openings. There's hidden passage ways, ominous rumblings about reincarnation, and old witchery. And it all gets undercut with hilarious elements of farce and self-awareness.

And best of all, there is Vicky. Vicky is one of MPM's best characters--cranky and defensive and clever and so afraid of feeling and being vulnerable. She'll grow still more in later books as MPM rounds her out and gives her a cast of friends and enemies and lovers to really make her shine. But even here, there's something delightful in her indignant rejection of what she sees as a marital trap...particularly at the end, when usually the heroine crumples into whatever available hero's arms there are. Instead, Vicky allows two men to dangle hopefully after her, while instead cheerfully blackmailing the head of the National Museum in Munich into giving her her dream job.

Favorite Line: "Any man with a grain of sense knows that marriage is the only way, these days, to acquire a full-time maid who works twenty-five hours a day, with no time off and no pay except room and board."

Rating: ****

Notes:
*A hilarious consistency in MPM books that I love is that many characters start off in a vaguely bland midwest (like Vicky and MPM herself), and make brave escapes to Europe...or at least the more interesting Washington/Maryland/Virginia area where MPM herself settled.

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