Customer Reviews

Dead Secret (Diane Fallon Forensic Investigation, No. 3)

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

 

 

Beverly Connor has become one of my favorite authors. She keeps the suspense level high while creating complicated plots and sub plots that always leave me guessing.

Dead Secret may be her best Diane Fallon (series) novel to date. While cave mapping with friends, an accident reveals a skeleton hidden within the cave for decades.

Diane investigates the cause of death and attempts to learn the identity of Cave Doe (the name given to the skeleton). As she works on the first body, Diane is asked to analyze the bones of yet another cave fatality. These bones, as legend goes, belong to a witch murdered centuries ago in an English cave. Diane combines the resources of her crime unit plus those of her natural history museum to discover the identity of both skeletons.

Beverly Connor manages to include just enough forensic detail to create interest, but she doesn't bog the plot down with an overload of scientific data. She also throws in a bit of archeology, anthropology, and earth science and weaves them into her tale of adventure and mystery. And what a shocking end to this story.

I love to read. I love mysteries and crime dramas. I've been a fan of Patricia Cornwell for a while, but have been disappointed with her last few novels, so I've been expanding my library (when I say library, I mean it...I own more books myself than my parents, 2 sisters, 1 brother, and 5 nieces combined). I commute by way of the DC area Metro trains and spend a lot of time each week with a book, so they have to be good to keep me interested.

I picked up Beverly Connor's "Dead Secret" because the title caught my eye. The book description on the back isn't the most impressive I've ever read and the cover really didn't sell me the book. The title intrigued me though.

Beverly's writing style is similar to the old Patricia Cornwell style. The book grabbed me from the first moment and held onto my attention to the end. I won't give away any of the plot, but I will say this: I'm usually very good at figuring out the who-dun-it pretty early on, but this one kept me guessing right to the last page.

An excellent read for the mystery fan!

I've now read all of Beverly Connor's books and have enjoyed each one of them. I have enjoyed Patricia Cornwell's books, but not her most recent ones. Beverly Connor has written books that have the best of what I enjoyed in the character of Kay Scarpetta. I dearly hope Connor writes more and FASTER!

These are great mysteries with not much gore or grisly murders. Diane is smart (she knows everything and can do everything) and the details about so many different subjects make the novels very interesting. We learn tidbits about forensics, archeology, paleontology, osteology, botany, entomology, anthropology, medicine, police procedure, crime scene investigation and forensic art/sculpture (don't think I left something out but may have). I enjoy all the facts and the science and find all the information quite educational. I'm beginning to develop a real fondness for the recurring characters as well. Can't wait for #4.

Frantic would probably be the best word to describe this mystery. Connor also has her usual high body count. However, in this case the reader also learns a little more about Diane Fallon's backstory.

Of course there are a lot of people who are giving a synopsis of this book so I will skip that part. What the faithful reader needs to know is that this book has all the virtues of her previous books in this series and avoids the worst pitfalls.

I very much enjoyed this book. I hadn't read the previous ones, not realizing it was a series at first so I was a little lost in some places. I'm going to rectify that as soon as possible and read "One Grave Too Many" as soon as it comes.

The only problem I had with the book will actually be a plus for many - it seemed I had to concentrate so hard to keep all of the sub stories straight. I'm not used to working so hard at reading fiction!

I fully realize that everything tied together but there were so many things going on at once I had to go back and re-read many pages. I actually had to put it down and take a little walk around the house to clear my head at one point! I couldn't wait to pick it back up again, though.

The author put a lot of work into this book and it shows. Excellent work.

This is the first Beverly Connor book I've ever read and I am going to read all of them. I'm thrilled to have discovered her and am anxiously looking forward to the next Diane Fallon book.

Beverly Connor has created likable characters, and a lot of them. I recently discovered her and now have read her complete Dianne Fallon series over the summer. Even though this is a series, it would be easy to read any of the books out of order. There is no sexual content, and the language is non-offending as well.

While mapping out a cave, Diane has an accident and discovers a skeleton which had been there for quite some time. She and her team set out to discover the identity of Caver Doe and how he died. Soon the remains of two more people are found. One is found in a car submerged in the water at an abandoned quarry. The other is buried in the woods.

Plus Diane is asked to analyze the bones of a witch, legend has it, that died in an English cave years ago. She is visited by people who want the bones and soon finds herself in a battle over them.

Diane uses both her crime scene investigators and her museum staff to uncover clues as to the identity of the bones. Many things begin to happen and soon Diane believes Caver Doe and the other two people may be connected. She just isn't sure how.

Can they discover the truth before anyone is injured or killed to keep the seventy-year-old secret hidden?

I love this series. It is forensic, but the author doesn't get really technical. Nor is it gory. I also like the caving. While it's not something I would do, I enjoy the adventure and reading about it.

Diane and her various staff people, both in the crime lab and the museum, are such great characters. They really add so much to each book.

The author does such a great job of intertwining stories through each book. I always know they're going to connect, but I cannot figure out how or why. I end up reading the books in this series in about two days as I have so much trouble putting them down. I highly recommend this book.

I love the Diane Fallon series and would recommend it to anyone who loves to see how forensics works. The characters are distinct and well-drawn, and the writing is brisk. Weird as it seems, though, I knew the "who-dun-it" long before I understood the "why-dun-it." It's weird because my knowledge of the "who" was erroneously deduced from an unrelated subplot handled later in the story. That was my only surprise: the strange subplot that threaded its way through the story. However, although I was one or more steps ahead of the plot's revelations, I still rank Beverly Connor as one of my favorite authors. You'll enjoy the series.

I began this series the proper way, with Book 1, and was hooked. Loved Book 2, but when I went to oder Book 3, I discovered it's not available in Kindle format! WTH? Nor is Book 4, Book 5....argh!