Customer Reviews

Scattered Graves (Diane Fallon, No. 6)

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

 

 

This is another bang up action mystery from Beverly Connor. She has just about coronered the market on forensic mysteries. Her novels are well paced and her research is well done. The characters are lifelike and easy to dislike the villians. I am always assured of a good nights entertainment with Ms. Connor.

In Rosewood, Georgia, newly elected Mayor Spence Jefferies has fired experienced supervisors like the chief of police and the chief of the crime lab replacing them with political hacks. No longer working for the town as its crime lab chief, RiverTrail Museum of Natural History curator Diane Fallon has run-ins with her replacement Lloyd Bryce and his thugs. However, legally she is in the right as the crime lab is owned by the museum not the town.

As Bryce and the new police of chief Peeks lead the harassment of her, one of the cops Harve Delamore tries to kill her, but instead he dies falling from a cliff ledge. When someone kills Jefferies and Peeks apparently in retaliation by "biting" back for their nefarious activities, the townsfolk want Fallon and her former team of crime scene experts to investigate. Although she has doubts about getting involved, Diane begins to look into the homicides because the prime suspect worked for her recently at the lab and in a nasty lethal overseas incident that has left both with emotional scars.

Although why the harassment, which comes across for much of the book as childishly inane especially without legal counsel, is not explained until very late to the reader (early would have been better even if the heroine is left in the dark), this is an engaging crime caper. Someone finally had enough of the bullying tactics of the mayor, the police chief, and their hooligans; Diane worries her friend and former employee David is that someone as she fears he went over the edge with frustration. Fans will enjoy this small town Georgia thriller as Rose County becomes a killing field.

Harriet Klausner

As with all Beverly Conner's novels, Scattered Graves is another cleverly plotted, fast-paced mystery full of surprising twists and turns. The technology is fascinating and her careful research is apparent. Although I wondered what an early incident in the novel could have had to do with later events, I trusted the author to bring it all together, and so she did in a very satisfying conclusion. Altogether entertaining!

I'm not going to summarize the plot - another reviewer has already done that.

The strength of this story is that it is out of the ordinary, and completely engaging. The weakness is that suspension of disbelief is sometimes difficult. In some spots, I was tempted to say "aw, c'mon!" but I was really enjoying myself enough not to care a lot.

I do think Ms. Connor could have added to my pleasure in the story by making everything a little deeper and denser: for example, a little more backstory about the bad guys, why they were so brazen (this is part of the "disbelief" problem above), and so forth. By analogy, the book flows more like a Robert B Parker or Janet Evanovich book than I prefer, but of course judging by the popularity of the foregoing authors, that's not an issue for most people.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4. I'll just skip to what was wrong with the novel (this being the only Connor book I've read). First, I felt like there was too much "girl power" going on. I can understand putting a female as the lead character, but it's almost reverse sexism when all the men in the story are either bad guys, completely useless, or "tell me your feelings" unrealistic. So I take away one star because I think this novel caters a bit too much to a female audience.

Next, I take away the other half-star because there simply wasn't very much "forensics" actually happening even though it's written on the cover. The story places WAY more emphasis on the drama, conversations, and out of the blue epiphanies over any science and reasoning.

It's not a bad read, and it's certainly engaging, but it just didn't do it for me overall.

This sixth in the series is another entertaining and educational read. The author, pedigreed herself, has written a character who is smart and spunky. Diane Fallon is the director of a museum of natural history (RiverTrail) and also heads another division housed in the same large building - a crime lab that has everything from an osteology laboratory (her own specialty) to DNA analysis. In addition to being an expert in many of the forensic sciences, she is a caver and is physically fit as well. This happens to be a good thing for Diane because she is nearly murdered, kidnapped, or imprisoned in every novel! Despite all the bruises and injuries she suffers as she escapes these attempts on her life, she usually manages to help the FBI or the local police solve the mystery.

In this investigation, Diane deals with a corrupt city government determined to take away her crime lab and a complicated identity theft scheme involving computer programmers and hackers -- and murders of course. Lots of murders including another attempt on Diane's life. This book in the series wasn't as interesting as some of the others have been.

Because of the combination of the natural history museum and the crime lab, the reader learns many interesting facts about different subjects in each book. The one thing that does irritate me about Diane is that she is a bit of a "know it all" and even manages to lecture her staff about John Locke's social contract.

Although these are not what I consider heart stopping, suspenseful thrillers, I think most readers will enjoy the science and also develop a fondness for Diane and the other recurring characters in this series and won't want to miss this one. I'm looking forward to Dust to Dust (Diane Fallon Forensic Investigation, No. 7)

I also think it's a series that should be read in order, so start with One Grave Too Many (Diane Fallon Forensic Investigation, No. 1) so you can get the full background on Diane Fallon and how all this came about.

This is not her best work. The villains and their motivation are are not at all believable and the [almost literal] deus-ex-machina technology involved in the resolution is way over the top. I struggled to keep reading, buoyed only by my affection for the museum crew; my wife gave up.

I'm a real fan of this series and don't mean it's not worth reading, I just thought this one stretched the bounds of credibility too much.

Part way through this book I looked to see if it was written by a committee. I did not think it was up to the standard of previous books in the series. Some of the conversation was inane and while the idea of cybergangs stealing identities was good, the plot was thin. (Spoiler alert) It was as if Connor got to the end and said "okay, who can I have as Jefferies' killer? How about Caleb?" But the clues to Caleb were mighty thin. I note that the next book in the series will be out in August and I suspect the writing and editing of this one were rushed.

I love this series, and found this book to be another great read. If you haven't read the series, I recommend starting at the beginning (which might be just slightly better just because it will be newer/fresher). That being said, it is a very good forensic investigation series-- even better than Patricia Cornwell in my opinion. Enjoyable characters that I haven't gotten sick of yet. Can't wait for the next one to come out (August 2009, I believe)!