"Satisfying mystery that keeps you hooked first page to last."

"Hang 'em High" is one of the thoughts running through Diane Fallon's head as she surveys her latest crime scene - four nooses and three unnaturally elongated corpses swinging in the breeze. Diane, the director of the River Trail Museum is not your average museum director, just as the River Trail Museum is anything but average. Both museum and director moonlight - Diane is an on-call forensic anthropologist, and the museum is home to the Rosewood Police Department's new crime lab.

Bodies start piling up as the killer searches for some mysterious item people are dying to possess. Diane knows her knots and that knowledge might just be the key to unraveling the mystery, or it might just be her one-way ticket to swing. From old mummies for the museum to new bodies for the crime lab, Diane's got her hands full. Taking on a diabolical and greedy killer isn't her only challenge. Diane has to smooth the political waves between the police department, the museum and the crime lab, while handling dueling theories at ten paces with the talented but proud county coroner, Dr. Lynn Webber. Somehow she still manages a personal life, complete with exploring, discovering and mapping caves. Not only does Diane manage to bring out the best in the museum and the lab, but she naturally brings out the best in those who work with her.

Reviewers have already mentioned Beverly Connor in the same class as Patricia Cornwell, Aaron Elkins and Kathy Reichs, to name but a few. This second book in the Diane Fallon Forensic Investigation series leaves no doubt in my mind that she's very able to keep her own with such esteemed company. From the first quirky sentence to the last page, the story hooks, pulls and satisfies until the very end. Her keen eye for flowing plot, real flesh--and-blood characters and intriguing puzzles makes for a fascinating and entertaining read in a book that is hard to put down. Make no bones about it, you'll learn much about the engrossing worlds of anthropology, archeology, caving and forensics. Even though it satisfies your curiosity, you'll find yourself wanting more as you turn the last page.

Reviewed by Anne Barringer
Posted August 16, 2004

Summary

In Beverly Connor's absorbing series, the bones of the dead reveal the secrets of the living. Now Connor takes her ingenious heroine—forensic anthropologist Diane Fallon—on a chilling excavation of a crime with harrowing implications...

In the shadow of Diane Fallon's new forensic lab in Georgia, a land survey crew has discovered three bodies hanging in an isolated patch of woods. The sensational case has aroused the interest of the media, unnerved the locals—and inspired a gruesome game between the killer and Diane. It begins with taunting e-mails and chilling phone calls. Where it leads is a personal investigation as each bizarre clue brings Diane closer to danger.