The Bone Vault

Begins in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's glorious Temple of Dendur, where wealthy donors have gathered to celebrate a controverial new exhibit. Met director Pierre Thobodaux pulls aside Asst DA Alexandra Cooper - there's an urgent problem ouut at a loading dock on a New Jersey pier. A 12th Dynasty mummified princess was supposed to be shipped in a sarcophagus to Cairo, but in her place is the body of a woman who ends up having connections with the Met and their neighbor the Museum of Natural History.

Apart from the story, which I liked because I absolutely adore the Museum of Natural History, I liked this one for how it handled 9/11. It's only natural that Mercer, Coop and Mike, among others, would have a strong reaction and that at least one of them would be in danger. Alex said to Nina: No one who wasn't there can ever understand the magnitude of this, the agony of these victims which is something I 'get', I wasn't in NY at the time and though I had the panic of trying to reach loved ones, I didn't deal with the daily aftermath, especially not in the way they would have to.

The story though, makes me certain that I never want to cross a museum employee. One of the better ones in the series, less predictable. Coop stayed outta show more trouble this time. show less

The setting for the murder that is at the center of The Bone Vault takes place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Alexandra Cooper is investigating the murder of a woman who used to work there. She was working on a modern bestiary that was a joint venture between the Met and American Museum of Natural History. Cooper finds the murder victim in a sarcophagus intended for an Egyptian princess. Setting plays a key role in this novel as much of the investigation takes place at the respective museums as the investigation reveals that the victim was involved in bringing back old remains to the land in which it originated.

I feel mostly ambivalent about this novel. The setting definitely adds to the novel. It’s a mixture of high culture, high show more society, and big-game hunters. It was not the typical scene for a murder mystery. Much of the plot is convoluted and kind of meanders. The killer is not set up very well. When the reveal happens, I didn’t have a reaction that was “oh, that makes sense.” It was more like, “Really?” In the end, this wasn’t a bad novel, it was more of a mediocre one. There was nothing exceptional about it, but it was a solid read.

Carl Alves – author of Blood Street show less

I felt like I learned a lot about the Metropolitan and the Natural History Museum. Alex's stalker continues to appear. The main mystery was pretty good.

In the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exquisite Temple of Dendur, a monument to an ancient world, a very modern debate is raging at a gala dinner: a controversial new exhibit is fiercely opposed by many among the upper echelon of museum donors. Alex Cooper steps into this highly charged ring of power players only to make a much more troubling discovery: a young museum researcher has been murdered, her body shipped to the Met in an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus. Together with cops Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, Alex must penetrate the realm of the city's cultural elite to find a killer intent on keeping some secrets buried for eternity.

Faster paced than most Linda Fairstein novels I've read, this was a pretty quick read. The characters were interesting and although it dragged a bit at times, it got bogged down in itself less than usual. The ending was a little anti-climatic, but overall a decent read.

Everything was interesting except the characters and the sleuthing. Motive was not clued well; nothing substantive until after the murderer was disclosed (NOT detected). Fascinating trivia about archeology and museums.