Colliding Worlds: Vicky Bliss

Sometimes, just for fun, I let the fictional world collide with the real one. It's a little in-joke for people who have some of the same background interests as me.

In the book Counterpoint Questions (not out yet, but will be soon,) Gemma Creed is the roadie for an indie band. When she and the others arrive at the Counterpoint Festival, she's introduced to a cafe owner named Martina Bless. Gemma, who has something of a grasshopper mind, reacts with some inner dialogue:

Court went on to introduce himself to the woman who turned out to be called Martina Bless.

Bless my soul! Bless you. Yi-yi-yi. At least it’s not Bliss like the museum detective lady. 

Martina's surname continues to impinge on Gemma's thoughts at intervals, although she mostly keeps that to herself. The snippet above shows that Gemma has read at least one of the Vicky Bliss series by Elizabeth Peters. It's not only the chance similarity in names, but Bless is a Swiss surname and Martina looks Swiss,  Austrian or German to Gemma although she is in fact an Alpenfee woman. Vicky Bliss, an American (Pennsylvania Dutch I think...) works in a museum in Munich.  It's a slender thread, but enough to jog Gemma's memory...and maybe some readers'.