Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Where the Bones Are Buried: A Dinah Pelerin Mystery-Jeanne Matthews

Where the Bones Are Buried: A Dinah Pelerin Mystery
Jeanne Matthews
Poisoned Pen, Jan 6 2015, $24.95
ISBN 9781464203480

Globetrotting American anthropologist Dinah Pelerin accepts a sedentary professorial position at Berlin’s Humboldt University where she teaches Native American cultures.  Her lover Norwegian counterintelligence agent Thor Ramberg lives with her in the German capital; which makes this the happiest she can remember being.

Eden ends when her mom Swan Calms of the Seminole tribe and Margaret Dobbs arrive together.  The two former wives of the late drug dealer Cleon Dobbs plan to blackmail their late mate’s criminal partner Reiner Hess if they can locate him.  The pair ignores attempts to kill them; instead Swan and Margaret continue their hunt for Hess.  At a Der Indianer Club ceremony attended by Swan, a murder occurs with the victim scalped.  BPD suspects Swan; so a reluctant Dinah investigates fearing what she will learn and worse what Thor will learn about her.

The fifth Dinah Pelerin mystery (see Bones of Contention and Her Boyfriend’s Bones) is a great whodunit anchored by a fascinating look at the city’s tempestuous past and the country’s enthrallment with Native American historical and present culture.  The superb investigation teaches the heroine first-hand how right Sir Walter Scott was in Marmion when he said “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!”

Harriet Klausner

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