"A typical suspense but with a quirky detective."

Museum curator Anna Lundgren and other museum employees have worked hard to make the opening of the exhibition of Mayan antiquities a success. Everything seems to be going smoothly until she discovers that an important artifact, a jade dagger, has been stolen and replaced with a glass replica. This theft could be catastrophic for the museum's reputation, and the end of her career. She reports the theft to the authorities, and tries to prepare herself for the bad publicity that will follow, especially when word gets out that the dagger was part of a collection that was supposedly cursed and that some believed the curse had led to the death of her own father years before.

When homicide detective Gil Garcia is called out to the scene of an apparent drug overdose he suspects that things aren't as they seem. He believes that the dead man, a guard at the museum, has not accidentally killed himself, but has been murdered. When he hears about the theft at the museum, his instincts tell him that this is no coincidence so he contacts Clarence Tebbins, the detective in charge of the theft investigation. Together they attempt to unravel the evidence and clues that will lead them to the perpetrator of these crimes. Unfortunately for Anna, the evidence is pointing directly to her as the guilty party. Gil can't quite believe she is capable of murder, but he has trouble with the idea that she may be responsible for the theft of the dagger that is said to be linked to her father's death.

I found UNDER SUSPICION to be a rather typical suspense story, with the seemingly omnipotent villain able to do things nobody thought possible, and always one step ahead of his next victim and the authorities. The heroine was not too stupid, but she didn't seem particularly intelligent either and there were a few times I wanted to shake her and yell "WAKE UP!!!" The hero was a likable and sympathetic character who was trying to deal with his feelings for the prime suspect (Anna), and the bad behavior of his teenage daughter. The romance was rather bland and took a back seat to the suspenseful need to find the killer before he could strike again. The most interesting element I found in this book was the banter between the two detectives, one of whom seemed to enjoy immersing himself in his role and taking on traits of famous literary detectives, in this case Hercule Poirot. I found this exchange to be witty and amusing.

Reviewed by Janice Bennett
Posted September 20, 2001