Murder at the Museum of Natural History: A Bill Donovan Mystery

Jahn, winner of an Edgar for The Quark Maneuver, spins a twisting techno-mystery for his brainy NYPD Lt. Bill Donovan that culminates in a shoot-out amid the glass display cases and towering saurians of New York's American Museum of Natural History. Bill and his partner Moskowitz use laptop computers, cellular phones and modems, along with ordinary gumshoeing, to track the killer of an Italian billionaire. Through a series of generous bribes, ex-playboy explorer Paolo Lucci uncovered the Lost Treasure of the Silk Road in the former Soviet province of Pamiristan. Included in the treasure is Kublai Khan's dagger, a copy of which was used to stab Paolo. Suspects include bankrupt Steven Clark, a conspicuous consumer with a Trumpian ego; Paolo's gorgeous wife, Kathy, who once was married to Clark and who makes a play for Donovan; Kathy's first husband, a former flower child; a pair of corrupt Pamiristani nationalists; and a Muslim fundamentalist terrorist. Donovan, who at 50 has abandoned booze for books and is currently split from his lover, the spitfire Marcy, is hard put to resist Kathy's unsubtle advances. Jahn's latest is suffused with a sense of place and a fitting irony. (Nov.)