Customer Reviews

One Grave Too Many (Diane Fallon Forensic Investigation, No. 1)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This appears to be the first in a series, and I will *definitely* buy the next one. This was a great read. Not absolutely perfect, but really really good.

Details: our heroine is a forensic anthropologist turned museum director. If you recall Aaron Elkins' series about Gideon Oliver, the "Bone Detective" then you'll recognize the profession. Diane spent ten years working for an international rights group, identifying mass graves from dictatorships so that the dictators and their henchmen could be prosecuted. In that time, she saw one mass grave too many, and doesn't ever want to deal with human remains again; that's why she accepts a position as the director of a natural history museum. She expects to spend her days dealing with dinosaur bones and extinct giant ground sloths. But bones have a way of finding her.

The details about the museum are great. I suspect that Diane has far more freedom, and things are run more loosely, than they are in real life, but let's face it, all of the exact, real details of the bureaucracy required to run a museum would NOT be exciting reading. A floor plan is given of the museum. I'm a big fan of natural history museums myself; I've been a member of the American Museum of Natural History in New York for decades now. The museum in the book is just outside Atlanta, GA, an area I'm not familiar with, so I don't know what real town our book town of Rosewood most resembles.

There are several plots going on at one time here, with all my favorite sorts of villains and supporting characters - scheming real estate dealers, twisted cops, absent-minded professors, eccentric grad students, classical musicians, and more. Diane's cop friend Frank is a detective for computer and financial fraud, and some of the other police refer to him as a "paper cop." When a family is mass-murdered except for an adopted daughter, the "grandparents" show up, and while they are a little bit stereotyped and less realistic than the others, they are quite funny - it's OK to have a bit of comic relief. Those are the only characters I didn't really like the descriptions of, though.

Another thing that's nice is how many different people help find clues and solve parts of the mystery, and how much our heroine acknowledges and thanks them. When Frank is in the hospital, we meet his brothers. One of them is a sports physician, and when he sees the skeleton Diane is working on, he is able to provide an important insight that helps identify the victim - Diane, living in Georgia and having worked in South America for years, was unlikely to recognize hockey injuries. Some authors make their detective characters so all-knowing on their own that they are somewhat unbelievable; characters are much more believable when they can use some outside help.

There's enough in this book to appeal to the fans of several kinds of mysteries: rivalry between local police, county sheriff's department, and GBI; several unusual professions; classical music; fine arts; taxidermy. There's romance between Diane and Frank, but only a little implied sex, no explicit sex, but there is some "bad" language (several characters curse, pretty much where people would realistically curse, in my opinion) so if you consider the presence of any four-letter words at all to be a negative, you wouldn't be pleased with that. As I said, at the places they curse, they pretty much are saying what would fall out of my mouth under the circumstances; I didn't have a problem at all with it. But some people are more sensitive to such things than others.

I look forward to hearing more about the museum - whether some of the exhibits that Diane plans while she is hiding out in a pond overnight turn out to be popular; future chess games against the nicest of the absent-minded professors, and so on - as well as future clever plots and teamwork.

Diane Fallon is a forensic anthropologist. Due to her troubled past, she has left that work to become the Director of the newly renovated River Trail Museum of National History in Georgia. The museum is to open to the public in a few weeks.

Atlanta Detective Frank Duncan, her former lover, calls and asks her to examine a bone found in the woods. His friends, George and Louise, found a bone in the woods near their daughter Star's boyfriend's house. Star and the boyfriend are missing. They are worried it is her.

Diane had promised herself that she would never examine bones again. But, since they are friends of Frank's, she does. She determines that the person was male.

The museum has their opening party for contributors, board members, and invited guests. It is a hit. Frank gets called away because George, Louise, and their fourteen year old son Jay have been shot dead. The police believe Star did this. Frank does not and begins trying to prove that she didn't.

Many unusual things begin occurring at the museum. They all appear to be an attempt to discredit Diane so that she would be unseated and the museum could be sold and relocated. She doesn't know why board member Mark Grayson is pushing so hard to relocate the museum when it has just been renovated.

This is a terrific series. I have always liked her Lindsay Chamberlain series and I feel this is another winner! She goes into great detail with the forensic examinations, but never did I feel her descriptions were too graphic or gory. This made it much more enjoyable for me. Many of the forensic mysteries go too far.

Diane is a well-crafted character and you don't find out too soon what she's all about. It is all laid out with perfect timing. I cannot wait to read the next book in this series. I also feel that the setting of the museum was a great idea. Lends itself to many interesting situations and many wonderful characters. I highly recommend this book.

I wanted to submit this review because I stayed up until 3:00AM this morning to finish this book. To do that on a weeknight, you have to know that a book is special! Diane Fallon is talented, determined, and caught up in a couple of extraordinary situations which may or may not be connected. She is also recently recovered from a devastating loss which led to depression, but she is well on her way to getting back on track. The information on forensic anthropology is fascinating, and I'm adding her next book to my shopping cart as soon as I close--I think that I'll try to save it for a weekend or a flight somewhere!

I had read a couple of the author's Lindsey Chamberlain books (I enjoy forensic science mysteries), but I was a little disappointed in that series. Good, but I guess I didn't relate to her personality. I had also picked up One Grave Too Many and her next in the Diane Fallon series, Dead Guilty. And I have to say . . . I loved the 1st one. Personally I like multiple plots, it keeps the reader on their toes. I enjoy Diane Fallon's persona and although some of the ongoing crimes may appear a bit much - in all fairness many of the mysteries today seem to be a little "out there". I appreciated her descriptions of some of the scientific work being done and how they go about it; to me that creates an image of what is happening, and how they can decipher answers from 'just an old bone'. I really liked her 'do or die' ethics, undaunted sense of humor and her ability to realize her need to continue to live in the face of the the horrors and tragedy she faced in South America. She also has a more interesting and direct way of interacting with others, and doesn't appear to be as 'thin skinned' as many women in todays novels. She see her enemy,loads 'her guns', aims and fires, and doesn't take unnecessary flack from anyone, but still has a soft spot in her heart for those she cares about. Feisty, independent, determined and intelligent, I like this series very much.

I loved this book! I've been searching for an author similar to Aaron Elkins, whose main character is a forensic anthropologist! Diane Fallon is a wonderful new character and very believable as an experienced forensic anthropologist! Ms. Connor I hope you continue to build on this character and her supporting cast!

I was lucky with this series. (I started to read the Lindsay Chamberlain books well into the series although it did not detract from my enjoyment of the ones I have read. However, I actually started at the beginning of this series with this book.

There's lots of descriptions of the plot of this book although I would question the accuracy of some of them, so I just want to say that is a very fast paced stories involving four murders, three in the present and one in the past. The theme is the relationship between child and parent. The book is more complex than any of her other books I have read to date.
Be prepared for an absorbing read.

If you like forensic mysteries you should give this one a go.

One last point though. There are some hanging threads. The author seems to do this as a lead in to future books. One for instance makes a reappearance on the first page of the second book in this series. So don't expect everything to be tied up with a neat little bow-- it just ain't going to happen.

I can't remember when I enjoyed a mystery more - I didn't want this one to end. The characters are interesting and even if "bad" ones are multi-dimensional. The author's grasp of the technical details seems first-rate. I plan to read all of her other books and look forward to the next one.

A second series by Connor, this one features Diane Fallon, another forensic anthropologist. In ONE GRAVE TOO MANY, she's the new director of the RiverTrail Museum of Natural History in Georgia, leaving forensics in her haunted past, until a lover and a murdered family bring her past back to the present.

The heroine, Diane Fallon, is an ex-forensic anthropologist and has inherited the directorship of a new(?) museum, both under circumstances that remain mysterious for long. We are tossed into what feels like the middle of a story where Fallon is a febrile near-hysteric, frenetically trying to get her museum up and running, dealing with a hostile board, hiring staff on whims, and falling back into an apparently old relationship with equally distraught detective Frank Duncan, who now brings her bones she really doesn't want to see. Connor's choice of metaphors--for people, for buildings--is calculated to establish an undertone of threat and horror. These inexplicable doings continue through the first half of the book, by which time enough of the backstory has emerged for the reader to realize this is not the second book in a series. We see that Fallon has some humor, the confusing incidents are beginning to settle into some sense, and the multiple cases in which overlapping sets of characters are involved become engrossing. Connor's gradual shift from psychodrama to forensic police procedural is, I think, a sophisticated way of showing how Diane is getting her life back together. That got this book another star. This book's title, One Grave Too Many, might better have applied to the "first" book implied by the appalling backstory that gradually emerges.

It is difficult to imagine how this can be made into a series, since so much of the trail of clues depends on the colleagues, buddies, or family of Diane or Frank, and so many incidents are highly personal. Maybe the series will develop into a "family sleuths" situation? We never do learn much about Frank's background or earlier relationship with Diane. Here he seems to be inveigling Diane to join him in shady, if not illegal, activities, since he is not officially part of these investigations (the reasons why are another plot thread, one not resolved). In general I think Connor lacks polish and wholly convincing dialogue, indulges in caricatures of subsidiary characters who nevertheless aren't memorable, and has an overwrought, tiring plot with, like, two separate conclusions. The plot features a lot more "action" and plot twists than we have seen in Connor's previous and clever Lindsay Chamberlain (forensic archaeologist) series. I don't know why she has dropped(?) that series, one I enjoyed more than this.

I just finished the newest by Beverly Connor, and she's quickly becoming one of my favorite novelists. I'm not crazy about the mystery genre, but I have a strong interest in physical anthropology. That, and the fact that the main character is a woman are two ingredents that led me to Connor's other series featuring character Lindsay Chamberlain. The anthropological base that drew me to Connor's writing in the first place is very much intact in the beginning of this new series.

I will say that at this early point, I'm still loyal to Lindsay Chamberlain. I think that's because with five novels out her world is much more solid than Diane Fallon's world in this first novel, but I can't wait to learn more about Diane and her friends and enemies! I love the two parallel mysteries that seem to be Connor's trademark. While the Lindsay Chamberlain books present one mystery rooted in the past and one in the present, this one features two very contemporary puzzles that may or may not intersect.

I heartily recommend this to everyone! Ms Connor, keep writing!

I wonder if Chambers and Fallon will ever meet....