Skeleton Crew
Forensic anthropologist and amateur detective Lindsay Chamberlain joins a crew of archaeologists excavating a long-lost Spanish Galleon off the Georgia coast. Within days she has two murders to solve, one over four hundred years old. Joining her once again is engineer John West, while bounty hunters, angry biologists and the engineer who lost the bid to work on the dig complicate matters. The cast of characters is large, but the author manages them well.
Though not strictly a historical mystery, this 5th volume in the Lindsay Chamberlain Series contains enough historical atmosphere (most notably through the inclusion of a diary from one of the galleon’s passengers) to satisfy the reader. It starts slowly but picks up speed about halfway through. The final third of the book is rivetting as the author brings everything together in a heart-pounding scene in which Lindsay fights for her life. Connor’s characters are real people with foibles, not cutouts, while her plot and subplots intertwine effectively. Readers of historical mysteries might want to give this book a try for a slight change of pace.
