cover image Simon Said

Simon Said

Sarah R. Shaber. St. Martin's Press, $20.95 (224pp) ISBN 978-0-312-15207-9

Dr. Simon Shaw, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian at North Carolina's Kenan College, needs something to distract him from his troubles. He has taken an ""emotional nosedive"" since his wife, Tessa, deserted him for a career in New York. The diversion arrives when an archeological dig on the college grounds uncovers the body of a woman-shot in the back of the head and buried quickly, but with care, under the old kitchen of Bloodworth House. The medical examiner says the victim has been dead at least 50 years. Shaw believes it's more like 70. He is able to identify the dead woman as Anne Bloodworth, who disappeared in 1926. In the process, he attracts a lot of attention-from the press, and also from someone determined to kill him and make it seem like suicide. Shaw, Julia McGloughlan (on the scene as legal counsel for the local police department but contributing little more than the love interest here), Police Sgt. Gates and the staff of Kenan's history department are realistically portrayed. Despite being a bit thin on suspects, this award-winning mystery (which captured the publisher's seventh annual Malice Domestic contest) features a well-paced plot and an engaging cast set within an appealing context. (Apr.)