The Bone Vault by Linda Fairstein

Description: In the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exquisite Temple of Dendur, 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.

First Line: I spent a long afternoon at the morgue.

My Thoughts: This is the 5th book of the Alex Cooper series but the first one I've read. I enjoyed exploring the hidden spaces of the American Museum of Natural History and learning more about it and its beginnings. The mystery was interesting, but maybe a little slow. the thriller part didn't kick in till better than half way through the book. Over all it was a fun quick read. I'll read more of these.

My Rating:





Quote: "It's in a diorama, in one of the display cases ont he main floor. It's - it's....an arm. a severed human arm."

New word: Beastiary - A bestiary, or Bestiarum vocabulum is a compendium of beasts. Bestiaries were made popular in the Middle Ages in illustrated volumes that described various animals, birds and even rocks. The natural history and illustration of each beast was usually accompanied by a moral lesson.

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The Bone Vault
by Linda Fairstein
Hardcover: Jan 2003,
400 pages.
Paperback: Jan 2004,
528 pages.