Helpful Score: 2
The only problem with this book was it ended. And Connor doesn't have another book in the Diane Fallon series due until February of 2008! It's going to be a very long year while I wait for another book from one of my favorite authors.
I eagerly wait for every Connor book but especially books in the Diane Fallon series. Diane is an anthropologist who is the director of the Rivertrails Natural History Museum. But she also wears another hat as the director of the Rosewood Crime Lab, a lab that's housed in the museum she runs on what insiders affectionately term the "dark side".
This book found Diane investigating the explosion at a meth lab not far from her own home. Someone was cooking meth in the basement of a converted house when it exploded in their face. Tragic enough to begin with but when the house was in the midst of a party for students of a local college the body count goes from one, potentially two to a possibility of thirty or more. And it's up to Diane and her team to identify the dead in a town where everyone knows everybody else and the body in front of you may be a loved one.
I didn't like the blurb on the back cover of this book. I don't think it did the complexity of this story justice. Yes, the book does involve a young woman who's been the victim not once but twice but for all we see her throughout the book the main investigation deals with the meth lab and sorting out the suspects from the innocent and how more deaths intertwine with one another. This is one book I think you have to read without any knowledge from the back of the book; otherwise you might be waiting like I was for a plotline that only developed in the last 100 or so pages.
I eagerly wait for every Connor book but especially books in the Diane Fallon series. Diane is an anthropologist who is the director of the Rivertrails Natural History Museum. But she also wears another hat as the director of the Rosewood Crime Lab, a lab that's housed in the museum she runs on what insiders affectionately term the "dark side".
This book found Diane investigating the explosion at a meth lab not far from her own home. Someone was cooking meth in the basement of a converted house when it exploded in their face. Tragic enough to begin with but when the house was in the midst of a party for students of a local college the body count goes from one, potentially two to a possibility of thirty or more. And it's up to Diane and her team to identify the dead in a town where everyone knows everybody else and the body in front of you may be a loved one.
I didn't like the blurb on the back cover of this book. I don't think it did the complexity of this story justice. Yes, the book does involve a young woman who's been the victim not once but twice but for all we see her throughout the book the main investigation deals with the meth lab and sorting out the suspects from the innocent and how more deaths intertwine with one another. This is one book I think you have to read without any knowledge from the back of the book; otherwise you might be waiting like I was for a plotline that only developed in the last 100 or so pages.
Diane Fallon a forensic anthropologist proves the past is never forgotten-and memories can sometimes kill. I enjoyed this book
Beverly Conner writes a lot like Patricia Cromwell. Diane Fallon is a forensic antropoligist who not only runs a museum but is head of the crime lab. When a young girle who works for her witnessed a crime, and was kiddnaped, at an early age. Dr. Fallon tries to healp only to get caught up in a murder. A mth lab also exploids and kills 32 innocent people. In trying to solve all the crimes she gets herself in a lot of trouble.
always an educational read! great series. highly recommended
Interesting characters, decent plot, good writing style. This was my first sample of Beverly Connor's writing, and it was enough to make me seek out the whole series to read from the beginning.
Book 4 in the series
Interesting 4th book of the series. This one revolves around deaths as a result of a meth lab explosion. Some odd twists, of course, with Diane being the center of attention. And either a loose end or a red-herring body that I was left wondering about (no tie in/up). Although not significant to this story, I am hoping the body shows up in the next book so that the story can be completed for me.
The fourth in Connors Diane Fallon series. Diane is a forensic anthropologist who wears two hats one as a museum director and the other running the towns crime lab. Connor manages to put in interesting information about various subjects in ways that don't feel like lectures, which I like. In DEAD PAST, a meth lab explodes in the basement of a college house in Dianes neighborhood, and her team must autopsy the bodies. Shes having a problem too with some thefts at the museum, and the odd behavior of an employee. I could have done with one less subplot (and it seems to me now I dont remember one of those getting wrapped up) plus at the very end Diane pulls one of those Too Stupid To Live moves. Ill give Connor a pass on it since she did write a nasty knock on the head for Diane earlier in the book, but I groaned when I read it. Still its a good book with lots of interesting action, I finished it in one evening.
I love the Diane Fallon books. I accidentally found the series on PBS and had to get at least the first three before starting the series. I like that the main character has more than one occupation and the author carries each of these quite well. I enjoy books in which I can learn something else besides just reading a mystery - that is also why I like Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell. I have read all of the Diane Fallon books and was not disappointed with any. I know the writing style was different, but did not affect my enjoyment of the books. She also wrote a series whose protagonist is and archaeologist (Lindsey Chamberlain), and those books are also very good and informative.
I liked this book and the entire series. Also, check out the author's "Lindsay Chamberlain" series.
Excellent
I enjoyed this book, but I think there are too many subplots going on. It's well into the book before you even meet the character described on the back cover. Even though that's distracting, the overall story is as good as the others in the series. The author certainly knows her stuff and there's always someone in the museum to help with a particular problem.
well, sometimes I wonder what is wrong with me... I like to read what everyone else thinks of a book, and I am out numbered big time, I was bored from page one and didn't stop being bored til the end. I did find I had NO desire to read any more.
