[.ca] The Bug Funeral: A Professor Shaw Mystery (ISBN 0312322186)

charming amateur sleuth:
Pulitzer Prize winning author Simon Shaw is a tenured professor at Kenan College in the historic part of downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. He is famous for solving three cold cases and has become known as a forensic historian. Helen Williams is referred to Simon by a mutual friend because she has a very big problem. She has the memories of an Annie Evans who lived in Raleigh in 1910 and remembers burying an eighteen month baby girl in an unmarked grave. Neither Simon nor Helen believes in reincarnation or past life memories but the traumas she dreams about as Annie are making her a nervous wreck. She wants a logical answer for these memories and she hopes Simon can help her. Although at first Simon thinks she's mentally disturbed he agrees to look into the matter and is shocked to find out that Annie Evans did exist. As he is researching her life, he questions many people who knew her and one of them is murdered leading Helen and Simon to believe that there is a secret involving Annie that someone doesn't want revealed. The protagonist is a historian who uses primary and secondary sources to move forward his investigation and it is fascinating to watch him go from not believing in Annie to piecing together the important parts of her life. The relationship between Annie to Helen is as much a mystery as the murder of one of Simon's interviewees and readers will feel totally satisfied with the outcome to both puzzles. THE BUG FUNERAL is a charming amateur sleuth tale. Harriet Klausner

a fast and intriguing read:
If word got out that respected history Professor Simon Shaw was investigating a case of supposed reincarnation, his reputation and career would be cooked. But that is exactly the situation that Simon finds himself in when in response to a plea from a good friend, he agrees to see Helen Williams. Ever since she was a child, Helen has had memories of someone else's life -- a woman (Annie Evans) who lived at the turn of the century in Raleigh, North Carolina (the very town that Simon's university is in). In an ironic twist, what Helen wants is not for Simon to prove that she really is Annie Evans reincarnated as Helen Williams, but to prove that her "memories" of Annie's life are completely false, especially since part of Helen's memories include Annie's involvement in the burial of a baby. Wanting absolutely noting to do with this particular case, but compelled to help, Simon begins to investigate Helen's "memories" and finds himself being reluctantly and deeply drawn into the case. Far too many of Helen's "memories" are turning out to be fact -- could Helen be a case of true reincarnation after all? "The Bug Funeral" was a very fast and engrossing read. Simon's latest case proved to be truly intriguing and very engaging one, and I found myself drawn into the mystery from the very first page. Sarah R. Shaber definitely knows how to write and present a good Malice Domestic mystery novel that will keep you guessing and riveted till the very last page. And while Simon Shaw may not have matured much over the past few years, and while I found his rigid approach to the whole reincarnation notion a bit trying, I'd still vote this as a good read.