Dead Secret: A Diane Fallon Forensic Investigation

While mapping out a cave, Diane has an accident and discovers a skeleton which had been there for quite some time. She and her team set out to discover the identity of Caver Doe and how he died. Soon the remains of two more people are found. One is found in a car submerged in the water at an abandoned quarry. The other is buried in the woods. Plus Diane is asked to analyze the bones of a witch, legend has it, that died in an English cave years ago. She is visited by people who want the bones and soon finds herself in a battle over them. Diane uses both her crime scene investigators and her museum staff to uncover clues as to the identity of the bones. Many things begin to happen and soon Diane believes Caver Doe and the other two people may be connected. She just isn't sure how. Can they discover the truth before anyone is injured or killed to keep the seventy-year-old secret hidden? I love this series. It is forensic, but the author doesn't get really technical. Nor is it gory. I also like the caving. While it's not something I would do, I enjoy the adventure and reading about it. Diane and her various staff people, both in the crime lab and the museum, are such great characters. They really add so much to each book. The author does such a great job of intertwining stories through each book. I always know they're going to connect, but I cannot figure out how or why. I end up reading the books in this series in about two days as I have so much trouble putting them down. I highly recommend this book.

I love to read. I love mysteries and crime dramas. I've been a fan of Patricia Cornwell for a while, but have been disappointed with her last few novels, so I've been expanding my library (when I say library, I mean it...I own more books myself than my parents, 2 sisters, 1 brother, and 5 nieces combined). I commute by way of the DC area Metro trains and spend a lot of time each week with a book, so they have to be good to keep me interested. I picked up Beverly Connor's "Dead Secret" because the title caught my eye. The book description on the back isn't the most impressive I've ever read and the cover really didn't sell me the book. The title intrigued me though. Beverly's writing style is similar to the old Patricia Cornwell style. The book grabbed me from the first moment and held onto my attention to the end. I won't give away any of the plot, but I will say this: I'm usually very good at figuring out the who-dun-it pretty early on, but this one kept me guessing right to the last page. An excellent read for the mystery fan!

I very much enjoyed this book. I hadn't read the previous ones, not realizing it was a series at first so I was a little lost in some places. I'm going to rectify that as soon as possible and read "One Grave Too Many" as soon as it comes. The only problem I had with the book will actually be a plus for many - it seemed I had to concentrate so hard to keep all of the sub stories straight. I'm not used to working so hard at reading fiction! I fully realize that everything tied together but there were so many things going on at once I had to go back and re-read many pages. I actually had to put it down and take a little walk around the house to clear my head at one point! I couldn't wait to pick it back up again, though. The author put a lot of work into this book and it shows. Excellent work. This is the first Beverly Connor book I've ever read and I am going to read all of them. I'm thrilled to have discovered her and am anxiously looking forward to the next Diane Fallon book.

I've now read all of Beverly Connor's books and have enjoyed each one of them. I have enjoyed Patricia Cornwell's books, but not her most recent ones. Beverly Connor has written books that have the best of what I enjoyed in the character of Kay Scarpetta. I dearly hope Connor writes more and FASTER!

Beverly Connor has become one of my favorite authors. She keeps the suspense level high while creating complicated plots and sub plots that always leave me guessing. Dead Secret may be her best Diane Fallon (series) novel to date. While cave mapping with friends, an accident reveals a skeleton hidden within the cave for decades. Diane investigates the cause of death and attempts to learn the identity of Cave Doe (the name given to the skeleton). As she works on the first body, Diane is asked to analyze the bones of yet another cave fatality. These bones, as legend goes, belong to a witch murdered centuries ago in an English cave. Diane combines the resources of her crime unit plus those of her natural history museum to discover the identity of both skeletons. Beverly Connor manages to include just enough forensic detail to create interest, but she doesn't bog the plot down with an overload of scientific data. She also throws in a bit of archeology, anthropology, and earth science and weaves them into her tale of adventure and mystery. And what a shocking end to this story.