Customer Reviews

Airtight Case: A Lindsay Chamberlain Novel (Lindsay Chamberlain Mysteries)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Someone recommended this series to me and since I'm on summer break I just plowed through all 5 books. I sincerely hope to be reading Lindsay's adventures for years to come. There's a whole planet for her to excavate and find mysteries to solve. The worst part about finishing Airtight Case was knowing that I didn't have another Beverly Connor novel to read after this one!

Connor does a great job of exploring the fascinating world of Archaeology and manages to create interesting characters that she reintroduces with each book. The surrounding characters grow along with her protagonist, Lindsay Chamberlain, a highly intellegent, well-educated, and curious archaeologist.

I hope Connor has more ideas for Lindsay Chamberlain's adventures and her publisher has the foresight to see them put into print.

The man claimed to be her fiancé coming to take her home from the hospital in Mac's Crossing, Tennessee. Mark Smith insists she is Lisa Christian, an amnesia victim. The woman feels that this is not right and refuses to go with him. All she knows is that she needs to escape and stay free until her memory returns.

As her mind begins to recall events, forensic anthropologist Lindsay Chamberlain joins a dig in the Great Smoky Mountains. However, the attitude of the crew is ugly and the excavation is stunned by a murder. Also hanging over Lindsay's head is the team of thugs trying to inter her permanently.

AIRTIGHT CASE is a fabulous mystery starring a strong character. The opening scenes are tremendous, as readers will believe Lindsay suffers from memory loss. The story line continues on its powerful path as Lindsay begins to recover bits of her memory including being buried in a grave. Though the climax is quite good, the ending still is not quite on the same level of super-excellence as most of the novel is9although it is very well done). Beverly Connor has written a wonderful, fresh and exciting mystery tale that will garner her new readers seeking previous Chamberlain novels (see RUMOR OF BONES and DRESSED TO DIE, etc.).

Harriet Klausner

On a weeknight. Knowing I had to get up and go to work in the morning. So be warned -- start this book when you know you'll have to read it nonstop (like a beach?)

It took about one sentence for me to get into the book. The action begins immediately -- archeologist Lindsay Chamberlain is in a hospital with amnesia, and some guy who claims to be her fiance wants to take her home, but she knows something's wrong and tries to get away from him... well, you get the idea.

Before long, the action shifts to an archeological dig in Tennessee just outside Smoky Mountains National Park. The crew on the dig are having major problems with a horribly belligerant site manager and lots of in-fighting. Somehow or another, these two stories have to come together, and they do, around archeologist Lindsay Chamberlain.

I highly recommend this book -- I think it's the best book I've read so far this year.

Returning from a conference, archaeologist Lindsay Chamberlain is captured on a lonely stretch of highway and buried alive. She escapes, recovers from amnesia, and joins a dig at a pioneer settlement in the Smoky Mountains. Everything is fine until it appears that there is a haunted house on the settlement, and its ghosts are after Lindsay. Plot and pace are even tighter here than in Connor's last Chamberlain novel, Skeleton Crew [BKL S 15 99]. All of the regular characters show continued growth as they tangle with two of the meanest killers imaginable. The mystery itself proves difficult to solve, and it is nicely incorporated with poignant profiles of mountain people, an appealing ghost story, and some fascinating reflections on amnesia. As always, the archaeological details--whether the trappings of a traditional dig or the lowdown on the latest space-age tools--are both integral to the action and fascinating in themselves. Another winner in a consistently strong series. --John Rowen

Reviewed in Booklist, the book review journal of the American Library Association, Oct. 15, 2000, p. 421.

I have really enjoyed every book in this series and this may be the best to date. I never re-read a mystery. Once I know who-done-it there isn't much point in reading the story a second time. Beverly Connors books are the exception to my rule. There is enough excitement and enough detail to keep you going back a second or even third time.

I gave my original copy of AIRTIGHT CASE to a friend (who loved it). Now I have to buy a new copy so that I can get my Lindsay Chamberlain fix before the next novel in this series is published.

Beverly Connor has a wonderful series going with her protagonist Lindsay Chamberlain. This latest addition shows that Ms. Connor has progressed as a writer. This is the best one in a very good series, all of which I have given 4 or 5 stars to in my reviews. Once again, Ms. Connor gives us a past and present mystery. Which is solved with a good solid plot and characterization. In Airtight Case, Ms. Connor shows even more complex plotting than in the other installations. The author never lost me with this plot. I hung onto every word. The ending was well explained and logical. Ms. Connor's strongest point is her characterization, not only of her "active" characters, but also the ones from the past. Reading a Beverly Connor book is like reading two books in one. Both plots converge in the end and it is a fun trip in getting there. I look forward to the next installment in this wonderful and fun series. I highly recommend this book and series.

Forensic anthropologist Lindsay Chamberlain wakes in a hospital, a victim of total amnesia, faced with a fiancé she doesn't remember and doesn't trust. Panicked and disoriented she runs, seeking shelter in the woods, and is found by her lover who persuades her home. Lindsay's memory returns abruptly, except for the key moments of her attack. Also lost is her memory of the men who came to claim her from the hospital.

None of which seems connected to the troubles at the Colorado mountains dig she joins in this fifth outing, "Airtight Case." The head of the crew excavating the 1830s farmhouse site is under suspicion of murder and tension is high due to an autocratic, inexperienced assistant who, but for Lindsay, would have missed the two 1700s coffins oddly buried there.

Author Beverly Connor, herself an archaeologist, provides plenty of professional detail as well as a steadily intensifying plot, involving ancient as well as modern murder and greed. Lindsay Chamberlain, while likable and professionally expert, is almost too talented. She rises effortlessly to every task, from peacemaker to detective, and is never wrong, which can get wearing. But this is a minor annoyance in a well-plotted and intriguing mystery.

I just finished Airtight Case and it is the best of the five. Each book keeps getting better. Great story of the mountains, archaeology, and murder.

This is a well written, well edited book and it is certainly what a mystery series should be all about. Three dimensional characters that you care about....or hate. Interesting backdrop for the story....archaeology dig in the Smoky Mountains and plenty of twists and turns to keep the ending satisfying. Not a lot of gore, but some very healthy doses of creepy things (being buried alive is a major part of the plot). This is the first book in this series I have read and I will be ordering the first 4 right now....can't wait to read the previous books and look forward to the next ones in this series.

Finely written, a terrific and gripping pair of plots, and well-fleshed-out characters, including the secondary and tertiary ones. A fine mystery throughout.