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

by Beverly Connor (Author)
Key Phrases: faunal lab, head conservator, conservation lab, Mark Grayson, Diane Fallon, Jonas Briggs (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Calls to mind the forensic mysteries of Aaron Elkins and Patricia Cornwell.

Product Description
With spot-on details, a smart new voice, and ingenious plot twists, Beverly Connor has been compared to the hottest crime writers on the scene. Now, she ratchets up the suspense with a brand new series featuring one of today's most cunning and complex sleuths: forensic anthropologist Diane Fallon. Her new job as director of the RiverTrail Museum of Natural History in Georgia takes Diane out of the game-until a former love and a murdered family bring her back in.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Onyx (December 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451411196
• ISBN-13: 978-0451411198
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #43,531 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 1 in The Diane Fallon Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Remember Gideon Oliver? If you liked those, you'll love this, May 24, 2004

By	R. Kelly Wagner "[e-mail]" (MD, United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great new forensic mystery series, December 9, 2003

By	Dawn Dowdle "mysteryloverscorner.com reviewer" (Lynchburg, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm sleepy!!, March 3, 2005

By	Linda Overholt "mystery fan" (Fullerton, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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!