[.ca] Still As Death: A Sweeney St. George Mystery (ISBN 0312337426)

Sweeney St. George investigates a murder at her museum:
My excitement over learning that "Still as Death," the fourth Sweeney St. George Mystery was available in paperback was tempered by the realization that Sarah Stewart Taylor's novel had been published in hardback last year. I read the first three novels in a relatively short period of time because I had received an offer to review the third book, "Judgment of the Grave," and initially turned it down because I do not like to jump into a series after it has started (imagine starting "The Lord of the Rings" with "The Return of the King," or the mystery series of your choice with the third volume rather than starting at the beginning). I then took advantage of a counteroffer to be sent all three books and now have a reason besides the Demon Barber of Fleet Street to run around chanting "Sweeney, Sweeney, Sweeney." A lot of books showed up this month from authors that my wife and I both read, and I have to say that showing "Still as Death" had arrived was the only one that made my wife's face light up (but I got to read it first). This fourth outing finds our professorial heroine preparing an exhibition entitled: "Still as Death: The Art of the End of Life" at the Hapner Museum of Art in Boston. However the book begins with a prologue set in 1979, when the museum was the target of a daring robbery. At the opening of the exhibit somebody ends up dead and the game is afoot and we discover that lots of people there have something to be guilty about. One of the interesting things about this series is how Taylor avoids having Sweeney solve these murders all by herself. When you are an expert on funereal art there are not going to be a lot of murder mysteries that are on point, and in the real world murders are solved by professionals and not amateurs. In this series that would be Detective Tim Quinn, who is assigned the case and does not know whether he is bothered more by being around Sweeney again or having to deal with a new partner. In addition to the mysteries regarding the missing Egyptian funeral collar, the murder in the museum, and the apparent suicide of grad student Karen Phillips a quarter-century earlier, the other burning question in "Still as Death" is whether Sweeney is going to figure out her love life. She is living with Ian, who needs to more back to London, not just for his work but also because he wants to be closer to his daughter. Ian wants Sweeney to move with him to England, whether they would be plenty of funeral art for her to check out. Sweeney's apartment building is about to be sold so it looks like it is time for a change, but complicating the issue is Quinn. Sweeney's investigations and the murder at the museum bring Sweeney and Quinn together again, and besides the two of them the only ones who do not see the spark between the pair are the cat Sweeney has inherited and the corpse. I have to admit that I would have liked to have seen more of Sweeney as an art scholar this around, especially since the title for this book comes from the exhibit on her specialty, "the art of death," for the university museum. The opening of the museum is interrupted by a murder and you can hardly say her attempt to give Quinn an after hour tour goes any better. I find the funeral art stuff in these books to be totally fascinating and would not mind reading some of Sweeney's scholarly work if Taylor ever wants to publish it.. The resolution of the love triangle I found to be unsatisfying, but I have to reserve final judgment on that score because I have my suspicions as to what Taylor is setting up for the next installment. What is important is that I am already anxious for the nest Sweeney St. George Mystery and firmly convinced that it will have something to do with El Dia de los Muertos. The upside to having missed reading "Still as Death" for thirteen months until it came out in paperback is tempered by the mathematical certainty that I now have less time to wait to read that next one. In hardback this time, I promise.