|
|
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Nearly mummified me, 5 Mar 2003
A body has turned up inside an ancient sarcophagus, and it's not the right body. Whoever the unknown girl may be, she certainly hasn't been dead nearly as long as the mummified princess supposed to be resting in her place, and soon a trio of Manhattan investigators -- ADA Alexander Cooper, Mike Chapman, and Mercer Wallace -- are in search of the girl's true identity. They begin with the director of the Metropolitan Museum, Pierre Thibodaux, who is forced by his staff into identifying the girl as Katrina Grooten, a native South African who worked in the Cloisters, a cultural relative of the Metropolitan Museum and the New York Museum of Natural History. But as soon as Thibodaux is out of sight, he resigns and disappears. Then the autopsy report reveals Katrina was poisoned by arsnic ... a substance plentiful in the museums. And the real mummified princess has yet to turn up.THE BONE VAULT, one of a series featuring ADA Alexander Cooper (the first-person narrator) and her cohorts, contains some fascinating information on mummification and Incorruptibility (unexplained natural preservation of corpses), a wealth of details about a little known side of Manhattan, a fictional account of the September eleven attacks, and some fascinating sex crimes subplots. None which redeem this painfully over researched and plodding novel. I started the first chapter determined to give this book my best and rammed my way headfirst through the next five or six chapters before giving in and skimming. The dialogue lagged, the mystery was sluggish, and the characters underdeveloped (although at least Alex "Blondie" was not headstrong to the point of risking her life unnecessarily the way so many female protagonists are these days). Every once in a while a couple of paragraphs, such as Mike's and Alex's games with the Final Jeopardy! question each evening, would merit a thorough reading, and the ending seemed no worse than the rest of the book, but when I finished the last page I was relieved to be done. Readers interested in fast paced and action filled suspense stories will probably be disappointed by this tale, but those who enjoy natural history and an out-of-the-way Manhattan wrapped around a highly detailed mystery may find THE BONE VAULT at least worth a try.
|
by Linda Fairstein
by Linda Fairstein
by Linda Fairstein
by Linda Fairstein
by Linda Fairstein
