Elizabeth ‘Beth’ Pimms is a 26-year-old librarian, but she wants to be a full-time archaeologist. Family problems, however, have interrupted her chosen career and she returns home to Canberra, bitterly resenting the move.

She misses the excitement of digging at an archaeological site in Egypt. She also misses Luke, her lover, who remains behind doing the things they used to do together. She’s a sad soul, wallowing in self-pity.
Dr Carl Schmidt arrives in Canberra with 17 skeletons found in a Mexican burial cave. They are thought to be 3200 years old. He asks Beth if she would use her expertise in palaeogenetics and carry out a skeletal analysis on the bones.

Although a bit of a sook who lives in a perpetual state of anxiety, Beth is highly intelligent; she uses her imagination to create competing hypotheses and then uses various research tools to eliminate the more absurd. She solves the conundrum surrounding the 3200-year-old skeletons and exposes the skulduggery stalking the corridors of the Archaeology Department.

I found it hard to warm to Dr Pimms. She’s undoubtedly intelligent – but she’s selfish, allows anger to overcome prudence and lacks social skills. But as the story unfolds she learns to not jump to conclusions.

Patience is needed by the reader as there’s much to appreciate in this first book of a series that will feature Elizabeth Pimms, intermillennial sleuth. I didn’t like her but I did feel sorry for her. She has the potential to grow into a thoughtful and respected middle-aged solver of really cold cases.

Reviewed by Clive Hodges