Will happily read this author's detective again. Fun story.

Lovely in Her Bones seems like a re-hash of the first novel in this series, Sick of Shadows. There's the conversationally witty Elizabeth who's (still) indecisive in her career path. Who (again) stupidly rushes to confront the "bad guy" of the novel and (again) has to be rescued by a couple of males.

I'd be more forgiving of this damsel-in-distress act if I didn't feel that Elizabeth is more concerned with getting married than with putting all of her education to good use. It just seems like such a waste to me.

Light reading' a mystery and funny!

Interesting enough mystery about Elizabeth MacPherson who has signed on to an archaeological dig in North Carolina that is trying to discover the ancestry of a native American "tribe" who are trying to save their land from being bought out from under them. It is interesting enough when the head of the dig is found dead and then others from the dig start turning up as dead archaeologists. It was a bit trite and a quick read,but nonetheless I enjoyed the bits that were focused on North Carolina and Indian heritage. McCrumb's writing is good for a quick not too deep read. Sometimes you're just in the mood to read something like that.

"Elizabeth MacPherson has signed on to an archaeological dig to help determine if an obscure Indian tribe in the North Carolina hills can lay legal claim to the land they live on. But the dig nearly stops when the leader is found murdered in his tent.

"It takes a second mysterious death to start a cauldron of ideas bubbling in Elizabeth's head. And when she mixes a little modern know-how with some old-fashioned suspicions, Elizabeth comes up with a batch of answers that surprises even the experts ..."
~~back cover

It's strange, isn't it, how the heroines in these sorts of mysteries never seem to be just nice, normal people? Maybe that's because they wouldn't be interesting enough. Our Elizabeth, who just got her B.A. in sociology, is now deciding on folk medicine as her calling in life (now there's another nice lucrative profession!) but for some unknown reason has taken a fancy to her brother's roommate, who's a forensic anthropologist. The roommate is assistant to a professor who's approached by a member of the Indian tribe, and off they all go on an excavation to see if proof of the tribe's status can be found.

Elizabeth has a rose-colored glasses view of the members of the tribe, and a healthy dose of hero-worship for the old lady who's the herbalist legend. Throw in a graduate student romance, a jealous wife, and things generally go downhill from there.

Cleverly written, amusing plot (if a bit convoluted) -- an enjoyable read but not a keeper.

I love Sharyn McCrumb's work. I have read many of her books. This one was not too bad.

I'm going to continue the series, but the pace of this one was a bit slow. I did enjoy the setting and topic.

Not much better than number one. Not a lot of mystery, detecting or action. Main character again is searching for something to do after college, is following a young man but has yet to let him know she is interested in him and just stumbles onto a solution to the crimes - again.

Entertaining mystery although the actual murders seemed somewhat improbable; the characters were amusing and the dialog good.

I've read a couple of Sharyn McCrumb books in the past. I enjoyed them both, so I thought I'd read a few more. I'm glad I made that decision.

McCrumb wrote her first novel, Sick of Shadows, years ago when we were in a writers' group together. I got to critique that one before it was published and that's something I'm proud of. The other book of hers I read was The Rosewood Casket. I think her writing skills grew over time, but she was always talented and Lovely in Her Bones is a good example of that.

Lovely in Her Bones is one of McCrumb's Elizabeth MacPherson novels, stories of a young amateur detective's adventures. This one is filled with interesting facts about anthropology and about life in the Appalachian mountains. It was first published in 1985, so I'm sure some things have changed over that period. I imagine there are new ways to determine race from bones and I believe hydrofracking is the environmental concern getting the most press today, rather than strip mining. But the human sides of racial issues as well as money vs. pollution issues haven't changed. And the same goes for relationship issues. Sharyn McCrumb's characters are complex and interesting. Milo isn't the perfect boyfriend for Elizabeth. I like the twists that fact caused.

Lovely in Her Bones is a short, fun read. Sharyn McCrumb's sense of humor is wonderful. I plan to read the rest of the series.

another reread, and the book is from 1985, and the cover doesn't look like that, altho that's what the ISBN brought up. Anyway, I do love Elizabeth McPherson, the strangest blend of endearing and exasperating to ever - sort of - solve a murder! Definitely fun, with some sharp observations thrown in.

Okay is possibly an exaggeration. Elizabeth barely figured in the whole scheme of things and encountering spelling and punctuation errors didn't help!