About
Reviews
Search
Submit
Home

Mystery Books for Sale

[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]


  

THE MOAI MURDERS
by Lyn Hamilton
Berkley Prime Crime, April 2005
272 pages
$22.95
ISBN: 0425200442


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Lara McClintoch's best friend Moira has recently undergone surgery for cancer and is eager to embrace the adventure that she has too long left on life's back burner. She has always dreamed of visiting Easter Island, so she begs Lara to join her on a vacation to the exotic island. Lara is reluctant, but feels she can hardly refuse her friend's invitation under these circumstances.

When the pair arrives on Easter Island, now called by its native name Rapa Nui, they find that a congress on the mysterious moai is about to begin in their hotel. The moai are the enormous carved heads that are found by the thousands on the island, many ringing the coast, facing away from the sea.

Moira finagles registrations for both of them and they attend the congress sessions. They soon discover that the delegates to the conference are, with few exceptions, enthusiastic amateurs, not professional scholars, and that there are strenuous disagreements among them.

At the core of the disputes are differing theories over the first settlers of Rapa Nui. Mainstream science contends that Polynesians were the first inhabitants of the island, but the charismatic Jasper Robinson wishes to convince the world that the first settlers came from South America. Robinson is making a documentary film about his exploits and uses the conference as a forum to capture on celluloid the astonishing new evidence that supports his conclusion.

Dave Maddox, a builder from Florida with theories about how the moai were transported, is found dead on the spot where an old man predicted someone would soon die. Gordon Fairweather, a professor from Melbourne who spends half of each year on the island, is caught on film threatening Jasper Robinson. Soon several congress delegates are dead, a little girl lies in a coma and it's up to Lara to sort out the tragic history that fuels the violence.

Lara McClintoch is the most charming traveling companion you're likely to find anywhere. Her chatty commentary brings the island's history, culture, terrain and inhabitants vividly to life. A few brief chapters sketch another, older, story of life in ancient Rapa Nui, and it provides a context for the events that unfold in present day. The mystery is complex enough to keep the pages flying and Lara makes an engaging and intrepid sleuth.

Hamilton is on the shortlist for the Arthur Ellis award given by the Crime Writers of America for her last book, THAI AMULET. THE MOAI MURDERS is an equal strong entry in this terrific series. Fans of Aaron Elkins, readers who wish to travel vicariously to exotic foreign settings, and anyone who relishes learning a little something while they piece together some pretty complicated clues will not want to miss this one.

Reviewed by Carroll Johnson, June 2005

[ Top ]


QUICK SEARCH:

 

Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]