Assassin's Blood

Alan Graham Mysteries #3

by Malcolm Shuman

Experience has taught Baton Rouge contract archaeologist Dr. Alan Graham that the picturesque landscape of Louisiana is rich with history that is both glorious ....and deadly.

The tiny town of Jackson, Louisiana, is the site of Alan's newest investigation. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers has sent Alan and his crew to inventory a tract of land slated to be flooded for a dam. But it's an investigation of another sort that soon draws Alan's attention when he stumbles upon a ramshackle cabin in the woods that the locals say is haunted by the ghost of its one-time resident: Lee Harvey Oswald.

Local folklore has it that Oswald visited Jackson a few months before the Kennedy assassination, and his ghost still lingers on the vast property Alan's staff is evaluating. That's in the past, however. Alan is more concerned withthe estate's recent history, and the unsolved murder of its owner, who was shot withthe same type of rifle that Oswald used. But it's not a ghost that shoots one of Alan's interns while she sifts through recovered artifacts. Nor is it Oswald's spirit who murders a local resident before he can talk with Alan. Now Alan is hurled into two mysteries: one involving the present, the other surrounding the darkest moment in twentieth-century America.

Genres: Mystery

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 1999

About the author

AKA M.S. Karl and M.K. Shuman

Born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1941, Malcolm Shuman grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and was educated at Louisiana State University, which awarded him a B.A. in 1962 in the fields of geography & anthropology. Shuman then had the privilege of serving in the U.S. Army from 1963 to 1966 where, as a member of the military police, he was assigned to Sandia Base New Mexico, with a Top Secret security clearance.

Series:
* Alan Graham Mysteries

Reviews

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This tale follows an archaeologist who is working to assess a piece of land that may be flooded to make a reservoir. I would have been happier with a story about artefacts being found, or rare birds like the ivory-billed woodpecker, but the author has decided to go with the possibility that the ghost of Lee Harvey Oswald might hang around an old cabin in the woods. I'm sure it might, but I don't need that prospect put at the end of many chapters.
Around p.120 someone's body is discovered. There has been tension, violence and tyre slashing already, but it's late for a murder. There's just a hundred pages left.
I'm pleased that a reasonably minded female landowner is shown. There is almost no archaeology and no birds.

[Alton Motobu · Rating 1 out of 5]

36 years after the JFK assassination there are rumors that Lee Harvey Oswald once lived in Louisiana and buried money he got for the killing; two men who supposedly were on the trail of the money are murdered at the site of the supposed treasure. Turns out money was from drug trafficking and the killings were due to greed. Weak story line, poorly drawn characters. Ridiculous to use Oswald as the basis for the story; reader does snot get any feel for the characters or atmosphere. Poor.

[Johnna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up by sheer accident and discovered it contained 2 elements I enjoy reading about.....Louisana and JFK. I was very impressed with the story line and the way it was written...could not put it down

[Patricia Mccammon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good story

Using mysteries from the past, this series makes the story so much better. Combining a modern story with history, the adventures make you think, what if?