Skulduggery

September 17, 2012
Hart (Dead by Midnight) combines a treasure hunt with a tribute to San Francisco’s Chinatown of the early 1980s in this diverting reissue of a 2000 title. Physical anthropologist Dr. Ellen Christie answers a knock at her door one evening to find Jimmy Lee, a young Chinese man with an unexpected request. Taking her to a basement room in Chinatown, Jimmy shows Ellen an oddly shaped skull that she identifies as belonging to the “Peking Man” fossil group. Jimmy’s happiness at the prospect of making a hefty profit from his rare discovery is interrupted by the arrival of two thugs, and in the ensuing scuffle both he and Peking Man disappear. With help from Jimmy’s brother Dan, Ellen attempts to retrace his last few days and figure out where he could have happened upon such an unusual find. During their search, Ellen comes to understand the intermingled hardship and beauty of life in Chinatown. Hart’s tale deftly blends thrills with more thoughtful moments.

December 1, 2012

Ellen Christie, a museum anthropologist, leads a ho-hum life in 1980s San Francisco. Recently, however, a newspaper article profiling her as "the bone lady" attracts a young Chinese American man named Jimmy. He believes that he's come into possession of the Peking Man (rare fossils that have been missing since the start of World War II). All anthropologists dream of treasure hunts, and Ellen throws caution to the winds. Needless to say, bad guys want those bones too, and the duo immediately runs into trouble. Soon Jimmy's lawyer brother Dan is helping them navigate the back alleys of Chinatown and Ellen finds she is thinking about more than bones as she gets to know Dan. VERDICT Hart's (Death Comes Silently; What the Cat Saw) light romantic suspense stand-alone is thickened with just enough espionage and intrigue to keep readers guessing. Additionally, the award-winning Hart provides a superb new introduction to this title that was originally published in 2000.

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