The Mystery of the Venus Island Fetish
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
It’s 1932, and the Great Venus Island Fetish, a ceremonial mask surrounded by thirty-two human skulls, now resides in a museum in Sydney, Australia. But young anthropologist Archie Meek, recently returned from an extended field trip to Venus Island, has noticed something amiss: a strange discoloration on some of the skulls.
Has someone tampered with the fetish? Is there a link between it and the mysterious disappearance of Cecil Polkinghorne, curator of archaeology? And how did Eric Sopwith, retired mollusks expert, die in the museum’s storeroom? Could Archie’s life be at risk as well?
But these are not the only concerns that weigh upon the assistant curator’s mind. Why hasn’t his beloved Beatrice—registrar, anthropology—accepted his proposal of marriage and the love token he brought back from Venus Island? Has something been lost in translation?
Tim Flannery's The Mystery of the Venus Island Fetish is a delightfully risqué caper, full of eccentric characters, intrigue, and adventure.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Australian scientist Flannery (An Explorer's Notebook: Essays on Life, History, and Climate) makes his fiction debut with a droll mystery set in 1932 that purports to be a manuscript found in a stuffed baboon. The Great Venus Island Fetish, "the most famous Pacific Islands artifact in the world" (which consists of a monstrous mask surrounded by 32 human skulls), is on display in a Sydney museum, where curator Archibald Meek returns after several years among the Venus Islands natives. To his dismay, Meek discovers that his fianc e, Beatrice, has rejected the love token he sent her made from his foreskin; that four of the skulls in the fetish have been altered; and that four curators have recently gone missing, with a fifth soon to die. Full of petty academic squabbling, quirky personalities, heavy drinking, and secrets and gossip, the plot plays out against a background of supercilious exoticizing of island people. You don't have to be a museum insider to enjoy the fun Flannery pokes at anthropologists of an earlier era.
