Digging for Clues

Artifact (A Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery) by Gigi Pandian (Henery Press* trade paperback, 6 August 2013).

Jaya Jones returns home late one night after a gig playing tabla at an Indian restaurant one night, and discovers that she has received a package from a former boyfriend, Rupert Chadwick.  Their relationship had ended more than a year earlier when Jaya left London after finishing the research for her doctorate in history.

The package contains a ruby bracelet and a note asking her to take care of the artifact, and that all would be explained if she called him.  But a day earlier, Jaya had read of Rupert's death in a car accident, which must have occurred shortly after he shipped the package to her.

Stunned, but curious about the piece, which appears to be authentic and valuable.  Armed with a photo of the bracelet, she goes to visit an old family friend who happens to be a professor of South Asian art history.  He refers her to one of his graduate students, Lane Peters who is, he says an expert on Indian jewelry.

While Lane is researching the bracelet, Jaya makes arrangements to go to Scotland, where Rupert had been working on an archaeological dig, and where, presumably, he found the bracelet.  After an eventful couple of days, she heads to the airport, where she finds that Lane is on the same flight as she is.  Jaya is not pleased; she's not sure if she can trust him or not, but she finally agrees to work cooperatively.

This an academic mystery that's informative but not pedantic, with just a bit of romance thrown in.  Jaya is a strong, intelligent protagonist, and I look forward to seeing more of her.

 Gigi Pandian is the child of cultural anthropologists from New Mexico and the southern tip of India. After being dragged around the world during her childhood, she tried to escape her fate when she left a PhD program for art school. But adventurous academic characters wouldn’t stay out of her head. Thus was born the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery Series. The first book in the series, Artifact, was awarded a Malice Domestic Grant. The second book in the series,  Pirate Vishnu, will be released in February 2014.
Readers who sign up for Gigi's newsletter at www.gigipandian.com will receive  an exclusive Halloween-themed Jaya Jones short story in October.


FTC Full Disclosure:  I purchased the self-published edition of this novel at Left Coast Crime 2013.

*Artifact was originally self-published in 2012, but is being re-released by Henery Press tomorrow.)

Family Matters

City of Whispers by Marcia Muller.

A review by Marlyn Beebe.

It's hard to believe that City of Whispers is Marcia Mullers 29th Sharon McCone novel. It seems like just yesterday I was reading the wonderfully entitled Edwin of the Iron Shoes, the first in the series, published in 1977.

Generally considered to be the first modern female private investigator, Sharon has (unlike some other long-running series characters) grown and changed with time. She has a successful marriage, a successful business, and an ever-growing family. Having learned that she was adopted as an infant, Sharon found her birth parents, both of whom are Native Americans.

In City of Whispers, Sharon receives an email from her half-brother Darcy from an internet cafe in San Francisco. Informed by her mother that Darcy, who has continuing drug and mental issues, has never been in SF before, Sharon mounts a search with the help of her nephew, tech-wizard Mick. The pursuit of Darcy becomes much more complicated than Sharon expects, involving some of the city's wealthiest families.

At the beginning of the series, the story was told in the first person, from Sharon's point of view. Here, Muller includes some chapters written from Mick's and Darcy's viewpoint (though not in the first person) allowing the reader to view the same incidents through several pairs of eyes, as well as to experience things that Sharon does not.

Of course, opinions are divided as to whether or not Sharon's gorwth has been positive or negative. Some readers complain that too much of the action now takes place inside Sharon's head, that too much of the action is external, that it's wonderful to see Sharon happy in a stable relationship, that her husband is a cloying character. She might as well be a real person.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for providing me an e-book to review.