Where the Bones are Buried

November 3, 2014
Matthews’s intricately plotted fifth Dinah Pelerin mystery (after 2013’s Her Boyfriend’s Bones) finds the American anthropologist living happily in Berlin with her Norwegian lover, counterintelligence agent Thor Ramberg, and lecturing on Native American cultures at Humboldt University. Then Dinah’s Seminole mother, Swan Calms, and Margaret Dobbs, both of whom were once married to drug dealer Cleon Dobbs, arrive to do a “little detective job.” The two women are seeking money from a criminal partner of Cleon’s, Reiner Hess, who belongs to a local club devoted to American Indians. Two attempts to kill or injure Swan and Margaret increase the pressure on them to find the elusive Hess. When a member of the Indian club is shot and scalped at a drumming ceremony, Swan becomes the prime suspect. Dinah’s subsequent sleuthing may expose her own dark secrets. Matthews makes fine use of Berlin’s turbulent history and the enduring German fascination with Indian culture.