It's an easy read, but the characters are all dimwits and there is a lot of jarring bigotry and really weird ideas about race.

I read this book quickly, in just a few hours. I have read several books by Sharyn McCrumb. This was not my favorite, but it was still a good read. I found my self distracted by the dated references to technology. The characters were constantly searching for a phone, and having to drive to different locations to find one. In a time when everyone has cel phones, this seemed old fashioned. Also the computer was using floppy discs. I know for the time it was written, it was probably cutting edge technology. But the book is over 20 years old.

The heroine Elizabeth is likable, but seems a little too eager to confront the murderer without thinking it through. She was also very insecure in her relationship with Milo. I was also disappointed in Milo, because he showed no faith in Elizabeth's work. Still, the mystery was interesting. It was set on an archeological dig, which I always find fascinating. I also learned a little about the Cherokees that I didn't know before.

This is the second Elizabeth MacPherson mystery and a bit darker than the first and especially the third (the light hearted Hieland Laddie Gone). The series frustrated me in later books, but I've had a decade to cool off and am trying them again. So far, so good.

An interesting look at an archaeological expedition in the Apalachian hills. Where a professor will try to prove a band of Indians are legeally eligable to hold on to their land. Much going on including two murders and the finding of a missing person ten years before. a good read.

Mystery

It just wasn’t my kind of book. It didn’t catch my interest and I read up to 7 chapters. Sorry

Intriguing

Appalachia forensics strip mining, murders. It has it all. Me turning the pages the end is a surprise you won't guess.

2.5 stars. Expected more, didn't find it funny, mystery easy to solve, and had to push to read the whole way through.

Filled out the backstory for me. That’s all I needed.

I've always enjoyed McCrumb's writing (I wish she'd write another book in the Bimbos of the Death Sun series), but this Elizabeth McPherson character does little for me. We get multiple perspectives throughout the book and barely get into the mind or actions of Elizabeth. The story wasn't bad, but I'm not sure I'll read another book in this series.

This is the first of McCrumb's Elizabeth MacPherson mystery novels. Quirky and enjoyable

'Lovely in Her Bones' is funny and charming. It's also shallow and lightweight, where characterization and depth are always sacrificed for the gag, bit or joke. Not that that is bad, it is what it is; a humorous cozy following an addled, clueless young woman who gets involved in deadly events, even though she has a college Sociology degree. Her number one character flaw is a terrifying obliviousness to murderous intentions. This does not make her one of the particularly odd persons that are in this novel - the characters McCrumb peoples her series with are, I suspect, intentionally cookie-cutter, recognizable from thousands of comedies - satiric, family-friendly, romantic - but Elizabeth ends up being one of the 'normal' stock players (teenage 'dumb blonde' being closest, maybe) in comparison. Whatever. She wouldn't recognize Evil if the Devil showed up oozing badness from every pore, but she has a knack for wrong-headed and unwise decisions which lead her straight into traps all the while thinking she will fix it, so heroic men hurriedly rescue her and solve the crime.

Elizabeth is actually trying to catch a particular man, her brother Bill's roommate Milo, a forensic anthropology student still at college. Because she is creating opportunities to hang around him for a possible hookup, she volunteers to help out on a dig looking for the bones of Native Americans buried in a valley 'run' in the Appalachians. The 'natives' want to stop strip mining, so they are looking to provide official research clarifying their tribal status with the Federal Government. They ask Professor Alex Lerche to come and examine their ancestor's bones. Milo is his assistant, so he is rustling up fellow students to dig. Elizabeth volunteers even though she finds bones gross. The other students, who are also straight out of central casting, are only necessary for the comic skits and stage routines which run riot in this plot, consisting mostly of insult repartee. In the midst of various squabbles and verbal jousting, a murder is committed. The weapon is a plastic tomahawk, sold by the quasi-natives to tourists. Needless to say, there will be no Great Revelation about the Human Soul, or Something New. This is all for pure fun, comfortable as a pair of wool socks.

This is the second book in the Elizabeth MacPherson 'mysteries' and it is much much much better than the first one, 'Sick of Shadows' (these titles are truly hilarious, so far; they are like satiric titles for a joke Romance or Mystery novel - a clue, maybe as to intent?). If you've only read the first book, I don't blame you for never touching another novel by Sharyn McCrumb. (However, that would be sad because she can write excellent stories, some quite serious and full of soul.) 'Lovely in Her Bones' starts off as awful as 'Sick of Shadows' was in its entirety, but the unfunny joking and the clumsy dialogue with incomprehensible emotional responses are shaken off by chapter four. Sexual situations are G rated, blood and gore exists for a single second in passing and the gags are familiar to family sitcom fans. To me, it strongly reminded me of TV shows from the 1960's, like Gidget, Dobie Gillis, the Patty Duke Show, or more recently, the 1995 movie 'Clueless', but without the romancing as the objective. Being entertained by sparring comedic characters who are involved in almost forgotten, peripheral murder mysteries is clearly the reason to pick this series up.

A real mystery is the obligatory theme-setting quote from a famous writer, so often placed at the beginning of many novels, is not left out of this one either, but in this context, why? http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/...

While McCrumb hasn't quite polished up her intended style yet that I can guess for Elizabeth's future in the series, so far it's shaping into a gentle satire.

3.5