Her Boyfriend's Bones

May 15, 2013
A romantic getaway turns sinister. Anthropologist Dinah Pelerin and her latest inamorata, Norwegian cop Thor Ramberg, are lolling about on the Greek island of Samos when they're inconveniently saddled with K.D., the rambunctious daughter of Dinah's deceased uncle. Worse, when they leave the local tavern, they come across the dead body of Fathi, who'd recently had an argument with their housekeeper's husband. Thor immediately goes into detective mode, and before Dinah can fortify herself with a belt of ouzo, more complications pile up. First, Thor admits he's doing undercover work for Norway's National Criminal Investigation Service, looking into a ring of illegal arms traffickers. Second, the house he rented for their romantic idyll has stood empty for 40 years, ever since the actress who lived there murdered her sister's husband, a national hero, and his mother and was then herself executed by the Greek junta in power. Her son disappeared into the Aegean, and her cuckoo sister Zenia, now in her 80s, is said to kill cats and cast the evil eye at everyone except the director staying with her to film a docudrama about her family. Third, the place is awash in fake antiquities and forged German identity cards, and fourth, fifth and sixth, someone slashes Dinah's car ties, vandalizes her rental house and makes off with Thor, whose car is found at the bottom of a ravine. Dinah doesn't know whom to trust. Everyone is bribing everyone else and switching sides at every opportunity. With a great leap of intuition, Dinah finally resolves those 40-year-old murders, faces down a passel of evildoers and reunites, at least temporarily, with Thor. Politically savvy, but overstuffed with plots and bios of Greek deities. And Dinah (Bonereapers, 2012, etc.) could do with a verve implant.

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May 1, 2013
Cultural anthropologist Dinah Pelerin arrives on the Greek island of Samos to spend the summer with her Norwegian boyfriend, detective Thor Ramberg. They are staying in an old house that once belonged to movie star Marlita Stephan, who was executed for murdering her boyfriend, his mother, and a powerful colonel in the Greek junta in 1973. Thor is fascinated by this crime, and Dinah soon learns that his vacation involves more than romance. Samos is a transit point for refugees fleeing the Middle East as well as a site for trading arms, some of which have wound up in the hands of terrorists in Norway. When an Iraqi immigrant with fake identification is gunned down outside the restaurant where Thor and Dinah are dining, Thor sets out to follow a possible link to arms traders. But he disappears after his car goes over a cliff. Dinah searches for him, turning up links between his disappearance and the events of 1973. This is a fine suspense novel with a strong female sleuth and a compelling setting.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)