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Annamaria Alfieri

Autor de City of Silver

7+ Obras 202 Miembros 16 Reseñas

Sobre El Autor

También incluye: Patricia King (1)

Nota de desambiguación:

(eng) Annamaria Alfieri is the pen name used by author Patricia King for her mystery novel City of Silver, set in 1650 in the wealthy Peruvian (now Bolivian) city of Potosi.
This page should, however, not be combined with that of "Patricia King", as there are several other authors with that name.

Series

Obras de Annamaria Alfieri

City of Silver (2009) 87 copias
Strange Gods (2014) 35 copias
Never Work for a Jerk (1987) 33 copias
The Idol of Mombasa (2016) 16 copias
Blood Tango: A Mystery (2013) 11 copias
The blasphemers (2018) 3 copias

Obras relacionadas

Queens Noir (2008) — Contribuidor — 39 copias

Etiquetado

Conocimiento común

Nombre canónico
Alfieri, Annamaria
Nombre legal
King, Patricia
Fecha de nacimiento
1941
Género
female
Nacionalidad
USA
Lugar de nacimiento
Paterson, New Jersey, USA
Lugares de residencia
New York, New York, USA
Educación
College of St. Elizabeth, Convent, New Jersey
Organizaciones
Mystery Writers of America, President of New York Regional Chapter
Aviso de desambiguación
Annamaria Alfieri is the pen name used by author Patricia King for her mystery novel City of Silver, set in 1650 in the wealthy Peruvian (now Bolivian) city of Potosi.

This page should, however, not be combined with that of "Patricia King", as there are several other authors with that name.

Miembros

Reseñas

When Justin Tolliver and his new bride, Vera, take up residence in Mombasa, British East Africa Protectorate, early in 1912, they have mixed feelings. They have transferred from Nairobi, where Justin, a colonial police officer, enjoyed his position, near where Vera was born, and her beloved father has his mission. But duty calls: Justin has been promoted to assistant district superintendent. Therein lies a source of marital friction, however, for he loves his work, whereas Vera wishes he’d give it up and become a farmer, as so many colonials do.

Justin promises he won’t remain on the force for long — a year at most — but that year promises to be very busy. He’s not even unpacked in Mombasa before a criminal act takes place that has diplomatic implications. The Grand Mufti of Egypt is in town to exhort the faithful of Islam, collect presents from the British, and remind them that their hold on the protectorate is anything but absolute, depending as it does on the Sultan of Zanzibar’s goodwill. And when a slave belonging to a prominent Muslim businessman runs away and is murdered for it, that should prompt soul-searching among the colonials. After all, Britain has outlawed slavery and claims that this “civilizing” influence justifies their empire. Yet political considerations and racism combine to separate the law from justice, at least as it’s practiced on the street.

This outlook sits poorly with Justin, who believes in the stated moral principle. He also espouses a comparatively liberal outlook concerning the people the British govern. He respects his sergeant, Kwai Libazo, a man half Kikuyu, half Masai, and takes him at his word, an attitude that marks Justin as “soft” among his peers. Back in England, he was a keen sportsman who played games as much for their sense of rules as their competitive aspect. But he’s a newcomer to Mombasa; he must follow orders; and, as an earl’s second son, he faces reverse snobbery, which makes his every move suspect. Other colonials wonder how an English-born aristocrat can even think of being a police officer, while they also turn up their noses at Vera, because he’s married down.

Meanwhile, Vera is fiercely anti-slavery and has far fewer scruples about adopting local customs. She understands that British clothing and manners don’t fit in Africa, and she wants to learn Arabic — imagine! Unlike a proper English wife, she speaks her mind, so Justin hears her views on his moral compromises, another arena of marital conflict. Nevertheless, husband and wife appreciate qualities in the other that they also fear. This setup provides great possibilities.

As befits the British colonial mission, they have their romantic notions about where they are and what they’re doing. For Justin, though Mombasa makes him wrinkle his nose, it also represents an exotic fantasy.

If all this seems extraneous to the mystery, rest assured it belongs. Alfieri creates a solid whodunit, with a satisfying ending. Just when you think she’s tipped her hand, she hasn’t. Suspects abound from all cultures and walks of life, including the Reverend Robert Morley and his sister, Katharine. (Is this echo of the actors in The African Queen too cute? Probably.) Still, despite the issues of justice, the marriage subplot, the racial and ethnic hatreds that divide the city, and Mombasa itself, only the mystery kept me reading.

The characters, though they display more than a single trait or two, seem locked into either-or emotional states during conflict, which simplifies them and makes them predictable. Also, Alfieri’s writing style, occasionally repetitive, explains more than it shows and distances me. Sometimes the explanations follow action that’s already clear or restate what’s been narrated before.

It’s as though Alfieri or her editor fears that we’ve forgotten the circumstances or motivations and need reminders. Either that, or she doesn’t see how to deepen such moments. It’s too bad, because there’s much on offer, and I applaud the author’s intent and loving portrayal of time, place, and cultural associations. I wish more historical mysteries did that.

Read The Idol of Mombasa, if you will, for the story. But if you’re like me, you’ll wish the rest held up its end as well.
… (más)
 
Denunciada
Novelhistorian | otra reseña | Jan 25, 2023 |
I read this chiefly for its setting during the time of the Incan empire in a city in what is now Bolivia.

It was a decent mystery, if a little convoluted. The ending was quite satisfying.
 
Denunciada
ParadisePorch | 8 reseñas más. | Jan 15, 2019 |
I don't like admitting it, but my knowledge of South America is woefully inadequate; however, it is due to books like Annamaria Alfieri's City of Silver, that I'm taking up some of the slack. This book takes place in 1650s Potosí in what is now Bolivia. At that time, it was the largest city in the Western Hemisphere (comparable in size to London) and the richest city in the entire world-- a position it had held for almost a century because of the area's fabulous silver mines. And due to its 14,000-foot elevation, it's also the highest city in the world.

The setting alone almost blew me away. The author's tapestry is so carefully and closely woven, you almost don't realize how much you're learning about the time and place. When readers start learning about the social history, it gets even better. What it's like living at such high altitude when the windows of the buildings are unglazed (have no glass in them). What it's like to have such unheard-of wealth at your disposal that your everyday dishes are solid silver. My mind was almost boggled-- and I loved it.

But City of Silver is no mere history lesson; it's also a marvelous mystery. From the opening scene in a mine that raised the hair on the back of my neck to the investigation surrounding Inez de la Morada's death, the mystery is multi-layered and totally compelling. The book is imbued with high altitude chill and a pervading sense of danger. The characters are revealed slowly, and almost all of them grow and change with the circumstances.

If you enjoy historical mysteries set in exotic places, I highly recommend Alfieri's City of Silver. Part of me is still on that mountaintop in Potosí.
… (más)
½
 
Denunciada
cathyskye | 8 reseñas más. | Sep 19, 2018 |
Set in 1912 in the British Protectorate of East Africa (now Kenya), The Idol of Mombasa is Alfieri’s second novel featuring Justin and Vera Tolliver. In this book, the newlyweds embark on a none-too-welcome stay in the steamy, smelly coastal city of Mombasa, where Justin is the new Assistant District Superintendent of Police.
In Mombasa, they find themselves in a deliciously rendered stewpot of mixed racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds and loyalties. Though the local government is British, Mombasa—and that portion of its population that is Arab—remains under the significant influence of the Sultan of Zanzibar. The British have introduced into the police service their loyal Indian subjects, and Africans of many tribes fill the population.
The Tollivers are a mix too. Justin is the second son of a Yorkshire earl. He had a conventional if aristocratic upbringing, but possesses no fortune. Vera is more of a free spirit. She’s the daughter of a Scottish missionary, born and raised in the Protectorate’s pastoral up-country region.
The conflicts inherent between and among such wildly diverse people are tailor-made for both social and domestic drama.
The novel’s prologue describes a daring nighttime slave and ivory smuggling operation, and the book’s central dilemma relates to the illegal, but quietly tolerated practice of holding and selling slaves. Vera is an absolutist, unable to countenance slavery in any form, whereas Justin may be as morally opposed, but constrained by unwritten policy and his superiors.
When a runaway slave is murdered, followed soon after by the death of a notorious Arab slave-trafficker, Justin and Vera both set out to find the perpetrator—he in his official capacity and she with secret, possibly risky, and sometimes unaccountably naïve actions of her own. Conflict between the couple is thereby assured, as Justin alternately admires and is frustrated by Vera’s passionate, impulsive personality.
Alfieri’s descriptions of exotic Mombasa and its environs a hundred years ago vividly evoke the setting. Her writing is clear and interesting, yet somehow doesn’t exude a strong sense of menace, despite the cast of desperate characters and perilous environment. She keeps multiple
plot balls up in the air, through a set of intriguing and well-drawn secondary characters. The net result is that this atmospheric novel transports you back in time and across continents to set you down in the middle of Mombasa, 1912.
… (más)
 
Denunciada
Vicki_Weisfeld | otra reseña | Jan 30, 2017 |

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Estadísticas

Obras
7
También por
1
Miembros
202
Popularidad
#109,082
Valoración
3.2
Reseñas
16
ISBNs
26
Idiomas
2

Tablas y Gráficos