Lady in the Lake

A master of surprise and reversal, Foss offers the fourth mystery to feature Jeffrey Flint, the Yorkshire professor and contract archeologist last seen in Shadesmoor (1996). Flint is asked to authenticate a sword that its owners claim is the famed Excalibur, the weapon of King Arthur. Although Flint doesn't believe there was an actual Arthur, he agrees. Soon, he identifies the anonymous owner as Lady Harry Dunning, an elderly amateur archeologist who seems to have made the find of the century when the tests report a date of A.D. 400-560 for the blade. Flint, who admires Dunning's lifelong devotion to exploring the Arthurian legend, is somewhat suspicious of her son, Gavin, an antique book dealer who intends to exhibit the sword commercially. After failing to appear at the elaborate ceremony to announce the discovery, Lady Harry is found lying on the edge of a lake, her clothing soaked, with her arms laid across her chest. That night the sword and its replica are stolen. With his assistant, Tyrone Drake, in tow, Flint struggles against a police department convinced that the death was an accidental drowning, a family that closes ranks against him, an insurance executive who stands to win big if the sword is not found and an elusive misfit named Merlin. Whatever Flint the archeologist thinks of the addled-brained amateurs who flock to sites of battle and burial and dicker over finer points of tales and legends, Flint the man understands the need for dreams and ideals greater than our ordinary lives. (Apr.)