Customer Reviews

The Copenhagen Connection

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have been a fan of Elizabeth Peters for just over a year, but have been devouring her books quickly. This is one of my favourites. It is quite short but extremely well written with a sharp sense of humour. The main characters are enjoyable, intelligent (although they don't always act it) and endearing. It combines adventure, comedy and romance beautifully with an emphasis on the last two. The plot is also intriguing (you would never, ever guess what is going on) and the descriptions of Denmark are spot on.

If you enjoy Janet Evanovich then you would also relish this little gem. It is of a similar style but the heroine is not as manic! The fast pace of the action and the humour is much the same (key difference is that it is set in Europe). My only complaint was that I would have liked more, more!

I LOVED this!!!!! I laughed so much especially at the beginning when our heroine spies her favourite author on a plane and tries to inviegle a meeting, in the proceess managing to seriously alienate her son. The bad tempered christian. When his mother goes missing the two team up and spend the rest of the book pursuing and being pursued by a list of laughable characters. my favourite Peters book outside of vicky Bliss and Amelia Peabody

I thought this book was so cute and funny and so educational. I nice combination. I just remember liking the process of reading as well my reaction to it five or six years ago. Elizabeth Peters writes some books better than others, and the romance between the characters are sometimes better than others, and this book really showed one of her best talents and mixing the romance, the adventure, escapade, etc. And I liked the adventure of going to Coppenhagen. The plot seemed better because of that adventurous touch. It's a light but educational fun read.

Elizabeth Jones is flying to Copenhagen for a holiday, and is thrilled to meet on the plane her favourite author, Margaret Rosenberg, am edieval historian. She is less thrilled to meet Margaret's bad-tempered son Christian, but the two of them find themselves having to collaborate, reluctantly, in keeping up with Margaret in her adventures, and tracking her down when she dissapears. This is a fun mystery story, with lots of humour and lovely descriptions of Copenhagen. there is one puzzling passage though, where Margaret says to Elizabeth of the middle ages "women were for childbearing, they had no other role". If Margaret is meant to be an expert on the Middle Ages, she should know that this is quite untrue, women had many roles in the middle ages, and childbearing was only one of them. This was the last individual mystery story Elizabeth Peters wrote, at least to date, a pity as I like them much better than any of her series.

Elizabeth Peters has written another thrilling and nebulous adventure.
I liked it very much and enjoyed reading it. By the way you can get an idea of Copenhagen and some aspects of the history of this beautiful city.

The spine of the book has got the following summary:

"A strange twist of fate brings Elizabeth Jones face to face with her idol, the brilliant, eccentric historian Margaret Rosenberg, at the Copenhagen Airport. An even stranger accident makes Elizabeth the esteemed scholar's new private assistant. But luck can go from good to bad in an instant - and less than twenty-four hours later, the great lady is kidnapped by persons unknown. Suddenly desperate in a foreign land, Elizabeth must cast her lot with Rosenberg's handsome, insufferable son Christian in hopes of finding her vanished benefactor. On a trail that leads from modern wonders to ancient mystery, a determined young woman and an arrogant "prince" must uncover shocking secrets carefully guarded in the beautiful Danish city. And they must survive a mysterious affair that is turning darker and deadlier by the hour."

I was really looking forward to Elizabeth Peter's Copenhagen Connection, after really enjoying her Amelia Peabody Egyptian mysteries, but I found the audio book version of this novel to be tedious, and the characters simply rehashes of Peabody and Emerson from earlier works. This is the story of a plucky (and yet somehow preternaturally old), young woman named Elizabeth, who traveling to Denmark, gets mixed up with an eccentric author and her snarling son, and a mystery involving of all things, a bathrobe.

While Elizabeth is a nice enough character, the author fails to write convincing modern young woman. Instead, we get Amelia Peabody with a few colorful swear words. Added to this, she fails to write any emotional hooks which might make me care about the legion of stereotypical characters which haunt the REST of the book.. Christian (the romantic lead's) snarling and snapping, (come on, surely she can write other types of heroes?)was grossly unattractive to me. His over-the-top eccentric mother had my eyes rolling in pain at points. Surely a modern heroine like Elizabeth, could do better.

Perhaps this is my own fault, for prolonging the reading experience by listening to the audio version, but I found myself vastly disappointed with this novel. Perhaps the others are better?

Similar to Elizabeth Peters' other stand alone books, this is a good light read. Amusing and not too scary, good for reading in bed!

This books was first published in 1982, therefore it is not going to be "Amelia Peabody". Peters fans expecting a modern tale of suspense and romance may be disappointed for this book is a "gothic romance" in the vein of Phyllis A Whitney. Taking that into consideration, as a gothic romance of the early 80s, it works. We've got the slightly naive heroine, the brooding and secretive hero and a mystery the hero may or may not be involved in. If you're a Peters fan ready to view this book in the context of the time it was published and miss the gothics of the 70s and 80s, The Copenhagen Connection is a light and fun read.

I guess Elizabeth Peters does not think the descriptions of locale in her books have to have anything to do with the actual places.
I thought this book would be a fun gift for my American friends, but I felt I needed to read it first.
Well, as I live in Copenhagen I started wondering as soon as the main characters get off the plane at Kastrup Airport and are driven in a limo through lush green fields to the city. There are no such fields on the road through that part of Amager, the suburb where the airport is. Then they drive past all the hotels as if they lay in a row like they may have on the list the author used. If anyone really drove past all those hotels, they would be on a circuitous hotel sight seeing tour all around the city. The hotel they end up staying at is so unreal. There is no such place here.
Well, since the whole style of the novel is such a fine mess of phony sofistication anyway, I just felt disgusted after those first pages.
Maybe if you do not want anything real, you can enjoy this nonsense.