Sleeping Bones: A Kate Delafield Mystery - Softcover

Forrest, Katherine V.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0425174840 ISBN 13: 9780425174845

Publisher: Berkley Trade, 2000

Synopsis

Los Angeles's Kate Delafield, a lesbian homicide detective, returns to investigate a murder at the La Brea Tar Pits that spirals into a dangerous case involving scientific revelations, political corruption, and the CIA

About this title

About the Author:

Katherine V. Forrest, two-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Best Mystery, is the author of Curious Wine, one of the bestselling lesbian novels of all time; Liberty Square, also nominated for a Lambda Award; and a number of other acclaimed works of fiction. Her novel Murder at the Nightwood Bar is a forthcoming film by director Tim Hunter (River's Edge).

From Publishers Weekly:

Lambda Award-winner Forrest seems to have lost some of her luster in her latest Kate Delafield mystery (after 1997's Apparition Alley). The usually cool Delafield, an LAPD detective, is unnerved when she and her new partner, rookie Joe Cameron, are called in to examine the body of well-known anthropologist Herman Layton, who has turned up dead at the famous La Brea Tar Pits with a puncture wound near his kidney. When Delafield and Cameron notify the victim's next of kin, they find out that Layton's daughter, Peri, is herself a world-renowned paleoanthropologist, whose career promises to surpass that of her mentorsAthe infamous Leakey family. The case takes an unusual turn after the discovery of a jawbone that resembles that of the two-million-year-old Peking Man, whose remains were lost nearly 30 years ago. Later, Delafield and Cameron learn of Herman Layton's involvement in the U.S. government's covert attempt to move the Peking Man from China for safekeeping after the Japanese invasion of WWII, an episode that left the adventurous anthropologist ostracized by his colleagues. The link between Peking Man and Layton's murder seems ironclad after CIA agent Nicholas Whitby appears and begins meddling in the case. Meanwhile, Delafield grapples with a shocking family secret revealed by her Aunt Agnes. Though the book has many action-packed scenes, Forrest fails to convincingly develop her various story lines, and several of the climaxes are far-fetched. Delafield remains an engaging protagonist, but the novel's turbulent events leave her, surprisingly, unchanged. Agent, Charlotte Sheedy. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Berkley Trade
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0425174840
• ISBN 13: 9780425174845
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272