Amazingly, this is the first Barbara Michaels I’ve ever read. It was a good page-turner, and the mystery was satisfyingly atmospheric in its gothicness and twisty with its misdirection. The romance, however, felt sort of tacked-on at the end. I was pleased to have a romance with an intentionally unlikeable heroine, for a change. She’s rude and selfish, snide towards all other women, and feels very little sense of guilt over neglecting her relations. She also does not hesitate to use any tools available to her to achieve her own ends, including people. But of course, she is also beautiful and unaware of it, feeling that her dark coloring makes her unattractive in comparison to her fair-skinned and fair-haired mother. This makes pretty much every man she encounters willing to literally walk over fire to help her.

I read this for the 2017 Romance Bingo. It fits the Gothic Romance square, as it has most of the elements of gothic literature, except the usual supernatural one, if you discount several characters who seem to have almost psychic thought connection or leaps of intuition. ( )

4th re-read of the year for Barbara Michaels done.

Barbara Michaels, the pen name for Elizabeth Mertz, was an Egyptologist for her other career. It’s expected that the accomplished woman who want to sneak Egyptology themes and settings into even her Gothic work under the Michaels name.

Even if this book is set with a museum curator’s work, there is nothing about artifacts and Egyptology here – instead the protagonist Haskell, obsessed with her mother’s death and who her father may actually be, is digging through another sort of potent history, her own biological tree.

The premise is sound, the pacing as structured as can be with this kind of story, but the plot is too calm. It’s not enough to warrant a full-length novel, so there is lagging.

An attempt or so on Haskell’s life paints a gothic splash, suspense is only there toward the end during a confrontation with the big bad, and the mystery – while not obvious exactly – isn’t that interesting because by the end I didn’t care much who the real father was. Romance is in the background to where I wasn’t sure who she’d end up choosing, but I was happy with the choice when it was made.

I do wish something different had happened with the elderly museum director, however. I think there was emotional potential when she discovered who he really was to her. Tragedy cut those strings too abruptly.

Overall this is an average read – Michaels writing style is addicting to me, so I could easily keep reading, but it’s a story that passes through the eyes and then out the brain again. Just not memorable. If you’re new to Michaels, start elsewhere, but if you’re a fan, it’s worth a read.
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Written in 1987 and a bit dated in style this is a suspense/romance involving a young woman's search for her unknown father. The main character, Haskell, is a student of Egyptology, and the book includes lots of Egyptology references. Haskell, raised by a maiden aunt, explores her deceased Mother's last days in an effort to discover who her father is. ( )

Interesting enough while reading it, but I guessed some, although not all, of whodunit. The brief mentions of Egyptology were more interesting than the story. There is a character reminiscent of Amelia Peabody's husband. ( )

The plot was hokey and full of holes and yet I enjoyed it thoroughly. Mixed in with the mystery of who is Haskell's real father and how did her mother die is some nice discussion on the Amarna period. ( )