"A typical suspense but with a quirky detective"
Museum curator Anna Lundgren and other museum employees
have worked hard to make the opening of the exhibition of
Mayan antiquities a success. Everything seems to be going
smoothly until she discovers that an important artifact, a
jade dagger, has been stolen and replaced with a glass
replica. This theft could be catastrophic for the museum's
reputation, and the end of her career. She reports the
theft to the authorities, and tries to prepare herself for
the bad publicity that will follow, especially when word
gets out that the dagger was part of a collection that was
supposedly cursed and that some believed the curse had led
to the death of her own father years before. When homicide detective Gil Garcia is called out to the
scene of an apparent drug overdose he suspects that things
aren't as they seem. He believes that the dead man, a guard
at the museum, has not accidentally killed himself, but has
been murdered. When he hears about the theft at the museum,
his instincts tell him that this is no coincidence so he
contacts Clarence Tebbins, the detective in charge of the
theft investigation. Together they attempt to unravel the
evidence and clues that will lead them to the perpetrator
of these crimes. Unfortunately for Anna, the evidence is
pointing directly to her as the guilty party. Gil can't
quite believe she is capable of murder, but he has trouble
with the idea that she may be responsible for the theft of
the dagger that is said to be linked to her father's death. I found UNDER SUSPICION to be a rather typical suspense
story, with the seemingly omnipotent villain able to do
things nobody thought possible, and always one step ahead
of his next victim and the authorities. The heroine was not
too stupid, but she didn't seem particularly intelligent
either and there were a few times I wanted to shake her and
yell "WAKE UP!!!" The hero was a likable and sympathetic
character who was trying to deal with his feelings for the
prime suspect (Anna), and the bad behavior of his teenage
daughter. The romance was rather bland and took a back seat
to the suspenseful need to find the killer before he could
strike again. The most interesting element I found in this
book was the banter between the two detectives, one of whom
seemed to enjoy immersing himself in his role and taking on
traits of famous literary detectives, in this case Hercule
Poirot. I found this exchange to be witty and amusing. Reviewed by Janice Bennett
Posted September 20, 2001
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted November 11, 2006
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