The Love Talker
3/5
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About this ebook
Laurie has finally returned to Idlewood, the beloved family home deep in the Maryland woods where she found comfort and peace as a lonely young girl. But things are very different now. There is no peace in Idlewood. The haunting sound of a distant piping breaks the stillness of a snowy winter's evening. Seemingly random events have begun to take on a sinister shape. And dotty old Great Aunt Lizzie is convinced that there are fairies about -- and she has photographs to prove it. For Laurie, one fact is becoming disturbingly clear: there is definitely something out there in the woods -- something fiendishly, cunningly, malevolently human -- and the lives of her aging loved ones, as well as Laurie's own, are suddenly at serious risk.
Elizabeth Peters
Elizabeth Peters earned her Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago’s famed Oriental Institute. During her fifty-year career, she wrote more than seventy novels and three nonfiction books on Egypt. She received numerous writing awards and, in 2012, was given the first Amelia Peabody Award, created in her honor. She died in 2013, leaving a partially completed manuscript of The Painted Queen.
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Reviews for The Love Talker
1 rating5 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Love Talker feels more like a Barbara Michaels novel. I could also believe that Mary Stewart wrote it. There's very little romance, but there is a nice little mystery. I didn't expect some of the twists, but in hindsight the trace was laid to be followed. The main family had thoroughly likeable characters. I could relate to Laurie's trials with her elderly relatives and her half-brother. The book was a fun read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Even though the subject is serious (attempted murder always is), Ms. Peters always injects a bit of humor and outrageousness to her plots and characters. It was fun to watch this one play out.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Laurie and her brother Doug go to stay with their elderly relatives in Maryland. Laurie anticipates nothing more than a few quiet weeks working on her dissertation, enjoying Great-Aunt Lizzie's cooking, taking long walks in the woods with Great-Uncle Ned, and fending off Great-Aunt Ida's matchmaking attempts. But mysterious accidents occur around Great-Aunt Lizzie, and it seems like a malevolent person or persons is out to harm Lizzie.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is one of the very early Elizabeth Peters books, when Barbara Michaels was still finding her way with this new voice. It's not as polished as the later Peters books, or the Michaels books, but it's very enjoyable.
Laurie Carlson is in Chicago, laboring on her dissertation in mediaeval history, when a very alarming letter arrives from her great-aunt, Ida Morton. Great-aunt Lizzy, Ida's younger sister, has a new enthusiasm, fairies, and is acting even odder than usual. Can Laurie please come home? Ida, Lizzy, and their brother, Ned, effectively raised Laurie after her unreliable mother, Anna, lost interest in being a parent, and she can hardly say no.
But if she had any inclination to do so, moments later the phone rings, and it's her half-brother, Doug Wright. He's gotten a very similar alarming letter. Within twenty-four hours, they are arriving at the Morton estate in the Maryland countryside. And while something is definitely odd, no one wants to talk about it. Among the changes that have happened over the last two years is that the Mortons now have household help, a man who lives in a cottage on the estate and does basic chores, maintenance tasks Ned is no longer up to, as well as the driving now that all the Mortons are elderly enough to make it wiser to leave the driving to others. Jeff seems like a nice guy, and he certainly seems devoted to the Mortons.
But weird stuff really is happening. Laurie hears flute music at night, and sees strange lights floating through the garden. She and Doug catch Lizzy sleep-walking, trying to leave the house, on one of the nights Laurie hears the music.
When Laurie discovers Lizzy has disturbingly convincing pictures of the fairies, pictures she says were taken by "one of the Wilson girls," a family that rents land from the Mortons, and shortly thereafter Laurie is nearly run down by the Morton car seemingly driving itself, she and Doug become more and more alarmed.
The story gets further complicated by the fact that Doug and Laurie don't really know each other all that well, everything seems to be directed at Lizzy and there's no apparent motive for anyone to hurt a somewhat odd but sweet and harmless old lady, and some buried family secrets that no one wants to talk about.
Not quite up to her usual standard, but an enjoyable light read, or listen.
I borrowed this book from the library. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/59-18-2008This is another old favorite of mine from Elizabeth Peters (aka Barbara Michaels), and I decided to listen to it on audiobook this time. It was as entertaining as I remembered, and the narrator is terrific. Laurie is working on her dissertation in chilly Chicago when she receives an alarming letter from her Aunt Ida, hinting at oddities afoot at the old homestead in rural Virginia, peculiarities that involve Laurie’s other aunt, Lizzie. Eccentric Lizzie is well known for her flights of fancy already and no one has ever taken them too seriously, so the fact that Ida felt perturbed enough to write to Laurie is bothersome enough, and Laurie can’t help but worry. Her whimsical old aunt is apparently, incredibly, seeing fairies in the woods, and they don’t appear to be entirely benevolent. After a serendipitous phone conversation with Doug, the half-brother Laurie hasn’t seen or spoken to in years, the siblings head home to the secluded Idlewood estate to find out exactly what’s going on. The aunts and their brother, Doug and Laurie’s Uncle Ned, all live together in the old house, and Laurie is uncomfortably aware that at their advancing ages they may not be able to live entirely on their own for too much longer. In fact, she becomes convinced that while she’s been away, someone or several someones have been taking considerable advantage of the old people, particularly of Lizzie. She has some astonishingly realistic photographs of what do indeed appear to be fairies, which have even Laurie – who is well aware of the notorious Cottingley hoax – perplexed. In addition, there is a mysterious young man living in a guest house on the property who seems to have weasled his way firmly into the lives and hearts of the old people, and both Laurie and Doug are suspicious of his motives. As the malice seems to step up with the siblings’ arrival, Laurie begins to wonder who she can trust. Everyone seems to be keeping secrets as they all dance around each other with frustrating, reticent half-truths, and it’s only when Laurie finally gets a little too close to the heart of the matter that the whole pot boils over.The odd title refers to Gan Ceanach (Gancanagh, Ganconer, Gan-Ceann), an Irish fairy whose name literally translates to ‘Love Talker’ in English. He’s known for hanging about in woods and glens, smoking his clay pipe and seducing young maidens with his enchanting voice before departing in a swirl of mist, leaving them to pine after him the rest of their days. As a character he doesn’t play any real role in this book so I suspect it was just an intriguing title to use.Vintage Elizabeth Peters (although it seems more along the Barbara Michaels line and I wonder why she wrote it under the Peters name), fun and satisfying as always.