(2007) Shell Game

Professor Simon Shaw is stunned to learn a friend, Dr. David Morgan, has been murdered – and even more stunned when he is named executor for the archaeologist’s estate. Readers who have followed Professor Shaw’s career as an amateur sleuth know that in the earlier four books, the crimes he investigated were the coldest of cold cases. Now rather than dealing with death several generations removed, Dr. Shaw is immersed in the death -- and life -- of a close friend.

Police Sergeant Otis Gates warns Simon to say out of this case. But Simon soon comes to believe his friend’s murder has to do with someone who died 14,000 years ago – Uwharrie Man. The body was discovered by Professor Lawrence Mabry, along with an implement that calls into questions some of the most basic assumptions about who the first/native “Americans” were. This is controversial stuff and several groups have a vested interest in what happens to the body. Dr. Morgan was on a committee to decide the fate of the Uwharrie Man – whether he would be reburied and forgotten or studied by scientists – and appeared to be the deciding vote. But where are David’s missing notes from his committee file? Soon there’s another suspicious death and Simon’s own life appears to be in danger.

I’ve been reading the Professor Simon Shaw mysteries since the first, Simon Said, in 1997. Since my favorite mysteries involve murders rooted in the past, I read them expecting to really like them. And I did. Simon is such a wonderfully flawed character – he’s not physically imposing but he’s no wuss, either. He is brave, intelligent, loyal – a real Boy Scout (which, by the way, comes in handy in Shell Game). He may drink a bit too much, and he isn’t particularly savvy when it comes to women, but when he pursues an answer, there’s no one more dogged.

I have but one complaint about Sarah R. Shaber – she doesn’t write fast enough -- there can be two or three years between books. But her books are definitely worth waiting for – with great characters, flawless plotting and top-notch writing. (I’ve tried unsuccessfully to find a copy of Fugitive King, the third of the Simon Shaw mysteries. Readers who like to read an entire series will be pleased to learn it is being reissued in 2007.)

By Diana. First published in Mystery News, April-May 2007 issue.

(2004) The Bug Funeral

Although he spends most of his time as a history professor at the University of North Carolina, Professor Simon Shaw also freelances as a "forensic historian." He has a track record looking into old mysteries, cold cases, using his research skills. In The Bug Funeral, he is approached by a friend to help a godchild discover why she has vivid memories of surreptitiously burying an infant's body a century earlier. Helen Williams has discarded all the reasonable explanations and has come to the conclusion she had been Annie Evans, a matron in a turn-of-the-century orphanage, in a previous life.

Not a believer in reincarnation, Professor Shaw thinks there's a simpler explanation -- the first that comes to his mind is mental illness. But his friend assures Simon the young woman is perfectly sane and troubled by her inability to find another explanation. The few colleagues in whom Professor Shaw confides believe he should stay away from this investigation -- that it will endanger his reputation as a serious scholar. But the bachelor professor sticks with it, partly because he is attracted to Helen, partly because he owes it to an old friend. The more he delves into the facts Helen knows, the more curious he becomes. It seems her facts are all verifiable but there is no apparent way she could have learned them -- short of being the reincarnation of Annie Evans. While checking into Helen's story, he crosses paths with a prominent area family with ties to the orphanage where Annie Evans worked.

I read Simon Said, Sarah Shaber's first Simon Shaw mystery, when it came out in 1997. I so enjoyed the story that for years, I looked -- unsuccessfully -- for more of the author's work. I gave up the search and so was very pleased to find The Bug Funeral among my books to review. I was also happy to learn there are two other entries in the Simon Shaw series: Snipe Hunt (2001) and Fugitive King (2002).

The Bug Funeral has just about everything a lover of cozy mysteries could ask for: a long-ago mystery to solve, an intellectual nice guy for a hero, unpretentious and solid writing, a plot that moves right along, and an ending that ties everything up. Readers who like non-stop action would probably be bored with The Bug Funeral, but the pacing is perfect for a cozy. The author explains The Bug Funeral title within the book -- it's an amusing if somewhat disturbing piece of the story. I can't wait to read the Simon Shaw mysteries I missed.

By Diana. First published in Mystery News, June-July 2004 edition.