Althea M. (althea) reviewed on 9/11/2008 + 774 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 4

Although this book is part of the "Archaeological Mystery' series, the only 'archaeology' in it is a passing remark by the narrator, Lara, that she was formerly married to a Mexican archaeologist. Rather a disappointment there.

Lara, a 40-something antique dealer from Toronto, has gone to Ireland with a friend to hear a reading of a will. Apparently, years in the past, her friend saved Eamon Byrne (the deceased gentleman)'s life, so he's once of the inheritors. However, all the other beneficiaries are members (and associates) of the squabbling family.
In order to try to bring his disagreeing (and rather disagreeable) relatives together, Mr. Byrne, a collector of ancient Celtic antiquities, devised a treasure hunt. Each family member gets a clue, and supposedly, everyone will have to share their clues and work together to find a very valuable hidden item.
However, the relatives don't seem interested in working together, and then the hired help starts dropping dead - most likely murdered.
It falls to Lara to try to piece together the clues, which are all based in Irish folklore and history, and solve the mystery.

The meshing of Celtic myth and history with a mystery like this is nice, unfortunately the story is a little bit unbelievable.
For example, a vague reference from an ancient poem seems to indicate a certain hill. So Our Characters go to that hill, climb it, and decide that 'cause the cairns that mark the trail are ancient, they should look at them. And they find a clue in an envelope wedged between the stones of one of the cairns. Talk about needle in a haystack! And in the space of a couple of weeks, they solve and find a dozen or so of these!

Also, the main character, Lara, is really bland. Perhaps her personality is more sharply defined in earlier books of the series, but I found her to be rather boring - especially in contrast to all the other characters, who had just bundles of quirky traits. They were also ALL the proud bearers of sterotypically Irish names. I mean, yes, the Irish do often have traditional Irish names, but not *everyone* in Ireland is named Padraig or Fionuala!

The book also has one of those unfortunate and cliched endings where the villain feels the need to hold someone at gunpoint while talking about the evil deeds and motivations for all the crimes committed for about 10 pages.
Sorry, but a solution to a mystery should make sense without that expository laziness.
Generally, one would think the killer would just go ahead and kill the victim without feeling the need to explain his or her actions at some length..... (meanwhile usually giving the victim a chance to escape...)

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