Sarah R. Shaber, Shell Game

Shell Game

Sarah R. Shaber

Dunne, March 2007, $22.95, 224 pp.

ISBN 0312356021

When the Chairman of his department and a colleague are waiting outside his room at the college, he knows that someone he cared about has died. His intuition proves correct when they tell him that his close friend, archeologist David Morgan, passed away. Police friend Detective-Sergeant Otis Gates tells him that David was murdered and when Simon Shaw examines the house he tells the detective that David was killed with an amethyst geode that was among other artifacts that are also missing on his shelf.

The victim's sister comes in for the funeral and learns she is coming into more money than she anticipated. She makes no pretense of her happiness because her husband is an invalid and she has to work to support him and their three children. Her alibi doesn't check out but Simon is convinced his friend's death is related to the pending decisions as to the bones of the Uwharrie man. The academics want to examine to find out if the first settlers on the continent weren't those who crossed the Bering Strait. Additionally, the Lumbee tribe wants the bones on the fourteen-thousand-year-old skeleton buried. Simon decides to ignore Otis' warning and investigate.

SHELL GAME is a fascinating academic mystery as the hero uses the techniques of a teacher to conduct an investigation. Police have used his knowledge in the past to solve cold cases, but this time Simon is emotionally involved, enabling readers to see how hard it is for him to separate his feelings from the investigation. The fact that he can do so makes him an admirable man who makes a believable sleuth. The debate between academics and the Native Americans enhances a totally fascinating whodunit.

Harriet Klausner