I'm sitting in limbo awaiting spring/summer releases of new books of some authors in my power rotation: Pelacanos, Brad Thor, Lee Child, David Hagberg, Stuart Woods, Michael Connelly, and Robert McCammon (fall) all have new releases coming out and I'm on the wait list at the library. In the meantime, I have to find some comfort reading to while away the time.
So, I went back to these interesting short mystery stories of Sarah Shaber. You may remember, she is a local Raleigh author who writes about her fictional Professor Simon Shaw, the small college history professor turned 'forensic historian' because of his knack for solving decades old crimes. The Bug Funeral is a bit of a departure. This time, a doctor friend asks for a favor to meet with this woman who claims to be the reincarnation of an Annie Evans who she thinks was a matron at an old Raleigh orphanage and may have a bit of a dark past...something about burying an infant. Most medical folks toss her off as a nut, but something in her tale catches his interest and reluctantly, he starts digging. He learns that there indeed was an orphanage in the early 1900's and there was a matron named Annie Evans. The real trick is finding out details of her life before, during, and after the orphanage and just how his client Helen is somehow attached to her. All details point to this really being a case of reincarnation. Simon puts the final pieces together when he manages to get into the attic of the family Annie worked for after the orphanage and finds some of Annie journaling. Turns out Annie lived at this family's lake house in the final years of her life. Years later, when Helen was very young, her family used to rent the lake house for vacations. The owner kept plenty of reading material on hand and young Helen was quite the reader. Seems she read one of Annie's old journals and many of Annie's entries ended up deep in Helen's mind that came to the surface as an adult...a condition we are told is called 'crypto-amnesia'. Maybe WC Don knows what that is. Anyway, case solved, Prof Shaw doesn't get the girl (not for a lack of trying) and this adventure comes to a close.
As I've said, these are simple, tasty little mystery stories set in my hometown; airport books, fluff reading, really good stuff to occupy reading time while waiting on more manly books. I've really gotten to like this Professor Shaw. He is a half Baptist half Jewish, short little guy from the NC mountains with a love of beer, T-birds (FIFA David - that is am American sports car) coke-cola and Goody's headache powders. I know I will come back to finish the Shaw series, maybe get another one soon as currently, only the Hagberg book is actually in the stores.
East Coast Don
p.s. the title comes from a mean activity at the orphanage. Older boys would kill a bug, put it in a box and bury it, all the while intimidatingand threatening younger kids to the point of tears so there would be some real emotion at the 'funeral.'
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