A Fugitive Truth : An Emma Fielding Mystery

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: Archaeologist Emma Fielding goes to a fellowship in Western Massachusetts for this mystery. Emma had recently completed excavation on the home of an eighteenth century woman named Margaret Amalie Chase Chandler. Emma becomes the newest fellow at the Shrewsbury Foundation, where she will study the coded diary of Chandler. Emma meets several people, including an officer with an attitude, a sarcastic dean, an alcoholic professor, and Faith Morgan who is a very angry divorcee.

While jogging, Emma comes across Faith's dead body. Before Detective Sergeant Kobrinski arrives on the scene, Emma sees Officer Gary Conner (the one with the attitude) messing with the crime scene and actually taking something from Faith's body! Soon the killer is after Emma. She must run for her life and, somehow, solve an old mystery.

***** This mystery will keep you guessing. At the same time you will be kept fascinated by all the action going on. The book is very fast paced and the secondary characters are extremely interesting! You do not have to read the previous mysteries of Emma Fielding. Each mystery is a stand-alone story. But this novel will make you rush out to find first three! *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Rating:
Summary: Booked for Murder
Review: Emma Fielding is an archaeologist. She knows quite a bit about the dead past. In her fourth outing, A FUGITIVE TRUTH, she is digging into the past again, but not the dirt. She has received a fellowship to The Shrewsbury Foundation to study "Madam" Margaret Chandler, the wife a wealthy early 18th New England patriarch and judge. Through reading her diaries and letters, Emma finds out that Margaret Chandler was accused of witchcraft and put on trial for murder. Strangely, unsettling things are happening at the Foundation. The other three fellows are a odd lot: Michael, a charismatic, handsome but moody scholar; Jack, an alcoholic blocked academic; and Faith, an acquaintance from Emma's graduate days. Faith is murdered. Why? And who did it? There are plenty of suspects: Faith's estranged husband, the unpleasant security guards, the administrative manager, the scholars, and the librarians. There's quite a bit of tension and action.
The setting of Massachusetts is nicely realized. The world of professors, scholars, and research is also marvelously depicted. Dana Cameron's books are fun! The main character, Emma, has a wry humor. There is a good mixture of pop culture references combined with academia: from American transcendentalists to Buffy the Vampire Slayer from incunabula to the Klingon-English dictionary. It's wonderful blend. It's a wonderful read.
Those who love Elizabeth Peters' books, especially the Peabody and Vicki Bliss books, will enjoy the Emma Fielding mysteries as well.