The Camelot Caper

Elizabeth Peters

Jessica Tregarth has been summoned to England to meet the grandfather she never knew. He and her father had quarrelled, her father moved to the United States, married, and never returned to Cornwall. She takes the chance to visit England, see the sights, and reluctantly meet her grandfather.

Yet something is wrong. As soon as Jessica arrives in the country, someone "accidentally" takes her suitcase. After she retrieves it, her hotel room is ransacked. Then she realizes she is being followed by the same man who took her suitcase. He has a partner with him. She panics and gets on a bus to who knows where. Now she is running through England with two strange men following her for reasons she can't guess.

In one of her misdirection steps, she meets David Randall. He writes gothic mystery novels, and his imagination is immediately caught when he hears her plight. He quickly is helping her get around England and evade the men chasing her. They try to figure out what is attracting the two odd men, and how does it connect with her or her grandfather. Now she has to get to Cornwall before the followers.

The Camelot Caper is one of Elizabeth Peter's earliest works. The interaction between Jessica and David is fun, the mystery intriguing. Jessica's character doesn't quite pull together, nor does the reader feel involved in her plight.

I recommend The Camelot Caper after you've read other works by Peters. While it's enjoyable enough, her work gets stronger with her later novels.