The top end of Australia is a land teeming with crocodiles, poisonous snakes, and curious aboriginal myths. It's a strange place to choose to end one's life, but that is what Dinah Pelerin's wealthy American uncle has done. Dying of cancer, he has summoned his entire family--current wife, ex-wife, assorted children, and niece--to a remote, comfortless lodge where he intends to rewrite his will and commit suicide with the aid of a rogue Australian physician with whom he shares a mysterious history.
Dinah sees this time with her uncle as a last chance to learn the truth about her father, who died while committing a felony when she was a child.But when she arrives, she discovers that the truth has darker ramifications than she'd bargained for. Meanwhile, her artist brother thinks he's possessed by the snake god; her family is seething with resentments; her uncle, who isn't really her uncle, is obsessed by a woman he married but could never possess; and a man none of them claim to know is murdered on a nearby island, impaled on the back of a sea turtle.
With her passion for mythology, Dinah tries to sort out the complicated song lines of her own ancestors while struggling to understand the Aboriginal Dreamtime and solve not one but two bizarre murders.
About the Author :
Jeanne Matthews, born and raised in Georgia, graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in journalism. She has worked as a copywriter, a high school English and drama teacher, and a paralegal. She is the author of several novels in the Dinah Pelerin international mystery series. Like her anthropologist sleuth, she travels around the world learning about other cultures and mythologies, which she incorporates into her novels. She lives in Renton, Washington, with her husband, who is a law professor, and their West Highland terrier, who is a prima donna.
Kate Reading, named an AudioFile Golden Voice, has recorded hundreds of audiobooks across many genres, over a thirty-year plus career and won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration. Among other awards, she has been recognized as an AudioFile Magazine Voice of the Century, Narrator of the Year, Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy, and winner of an Publisher's Weekly's Listen-Up Award. She records at her home studio, Madison Productions, Inc., in Maryland.
Review :
"Readers will enjoy the anthropology frame and the liberal doses of 'Strine' (Australian slang) that appear throughout. Fans of Elizabeth Peters' Vicky Bliss should try this engaging new series, which will take Dinah to various locales in search of anthropological adventure."
-- "Booklist"
"In this launch of a new international cozy series, Matthews places a refreshingly original female sleuth into a maelstrom of lies and deceit."
-- "Library Journal"
"Matthews' debut provides a lively updating of that classic mystery setup, the reading of the will, rife with squabbling kinfolk, quirky Strine (Aussie slang), and a nice introduction to Dinah."
-- "Kirkus Reviews"
