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Lindsay Chamberlain #4
Skeleton Crew
Lindsay Chamberlain is excavating a 1558 Spanish galleon on the ocean floor in one of the largest cofferdams ever built. In the process, she must solve a mystery from the crew of the ship in 1558 and protect the treasure from modern day pirates.
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
27 people are currently reading
271 people want to read
About the author
Beverly Connor
30 books247 followersI'm Beverly Connor and I love archaeology. I worked in Georgia and South Carolina as an archaeologist doing both fieldwork and analyzing artifacts. I also love mysteries. I combined these two loves and now write mysteries in which I weave my professional experience as an archaeologist into stories of murder and intrigue in both my Diane Fallon Forensic Investigation series and Lindsay Chamberlain Archaeology Mystery Series.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
March 11, 2019
This was an enjoyable, entertaining read but all the plot twists and turns were just a bit too convenient. It felt a bit contrived here and there. Still, I had a nice few hours with this book and Beverly Connor always puts some interesting information in her books, which makes her books fun to read.
May 29, 2009
Beverly Connor skillfully intertwines the past with the present in this tale. An archeological crew in 2000 is excavating a Spanish galleon sunk off the coast of Georgia in 1558. It's very interesting how the author switches up the action using a translation of a ships passenger's diary which details pretty much the entire voyage. The main character, Lyndsay Chamberlain, pinpoints certain discoveries with diary entries. It's really neat the way the diary coincides with what the crew is finding at the excavation site. When a skeleton is found, Lyndsay suspects he was murdered and they use the diary to try to solve the mystery.
Apparently a second galleon might be buried relatively close to the ship they are excavating and looters are circling like vultures. Suspicious deaths occur and Lyndsay and a few other crew members are injured. It's a race to find the second ship and solve both mysteries.
This is the fourth Lyndsay Chamberlain mystery in the series but only the first which I've read. I will certainly be adding the other three books to my TBR list. What a great author and a terrific mystery.
Apparently a second galleon might be buried relatively close to the ship they are excavating and looters are circling like vultures. Suspicious deaths occur and Lyndsay and a few other crew members are injured. It's a race to find the second ship and solve both mysteries.
This is the fourth Lyndsay Chamberlain mystery in the series but only the first which I've read. I will certainly be adding the other three books to my TBR list. What a great author and a terrific mystery.
January 20, 2025
Skeleton Crew by Beverly Connor is the fourth book of the Lindsay Chamberlain mystery series set in contemporary Georgia. Dr. Lindsay Chamberlain is a forensic archaeologist, professor at University of Georgia with a specialty in bones. UGA has just combined Anthropology and Archaeology departments under Dr. Francisco Lewis, an "outsider" who has key connections with generous donors.
St. Magdalena is a fictitious composite of actual barrier islands in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Georgia. According to Spanish archives, in 1588 Spanish galleon Estrella de España wrecked near the coast in a terrible storm. Dr. Lewis obtained funding for a million-dollar project: excavation of the ship. He assigned Lindsay's summer teaching responsibilities to archaeologist Gina Chapman, who came to UGA with him. Lindsay fears she's being edged out by her rival, but Dr. Lewis assures her he wants her on the dig for her expertise with bones (which he certainly needs for the skeletons they excavate).
The Magdalena House was a large dark cedar three-story structure that fit into the flora of the island as if it had grown there. Beside the walkway, separated from them only by height and railing, was an alligator pond. Lindsay searched the surface of the pond and spotted the brow ridge, head, and back of an alligator, so still in the water it could have been a log.
The oval dam, five miles out in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of one of Georgia's barrier islands, was a structural marvel that held back the ocean and allowed archaeologists to work on the ocean floor as if it were dry land. The interior of the cofferdam was enormous. Lindsay guessed about a hundred and fifty by eighty feet, perhaps larger. Damp metal walls loomed thirty-five feet above her head. It was like being in a giant well, but a reverse well in which the water is on the outside and the hole is dry.
Shortly after arriving at the dig, Lindsay is the first to discover a skeleton. Translator Harper Latham is at the site, painstakingly translating a diary in Spanish from the ship. Translated chapters of the 1588 diary are occasionally interspersed with the present-day account of the dig.
[1588] When the Captain-General of the fleet from flagship Nuestra Senora del Rosario and the king's General-Inspector Lopez from the Espiritu Viento dine on the Estrella, they dine on a feast fit for a king: six roasted chickens stuffed with rice, almonds, and raisins, broad beans and garlic, olives, honey cakes, and the best of the captain's wines. My stomach was joyful, so tired was it of dried fish, boiled pork, and dry biscuits.
As the translation progresses, Lindsay begins to identify the skeletons she examines, matching diary entries to other artifacts. Lindsay touched the indentations in the skull. She was, after all, a forensic anthropologist, and she recognized murder by blunt-force trauma to the head when she saw it. She hopes when the diary is completely translated, it will reveal what happened.
That shoe had survived for almost four hundred and forty years in the anaerobic environment of the ocean mud. Now that it was exposed to the air, it would deteriorate quickly. Once artifacts were uncovered, it was important to get them out of the ground and into an environment where they could be stabilized.
[1588] The diary writer is covertly on the ship as a spy. Smuggling gold and silver has long been a problem for the House of Trade, and they have all but ignored it. Perez, the new Governor of the House, thinks he can bring it under control, if he has the right information. I wonder. Smuggling is as established as the Church itself. He thinks that if he can make an example of a few, the rest will follow. But where there is such great wealth for the taking...I think it is a hopeless venture.
[1588] The man Sancho was accused of stealing from another sailor. These men have so little, I couldn't conceive what he could have stolen. I discovered that what he stole was a place to sleep. Imagine. Such are the conditions of the sailor.
But the dig is menaced by a sequence of crimes, from break-ins to theft of research notes, to motorboat sabotage, to desecration of artifacts, to murder. Dr. Lewis has heard of Lindsay's forensic work solving murders for law enforcement, and he commands her to investigate.
Dr. Lewis pushes the team to go faster, do more. "Odd. Lewis will like it." "Why is it that Lewis's likes and dislikes form everyone's standard of measurement?" "He writes the checks. Big checks." "Good point." He has a second goal for this dig, revealed only to a few.
Lindsay is hesitant at first about working with John West, an adversary at a previous dig (book 2). FBI agent Ramirez asks her, "At whom was he angry and why?" "At me, for digging up his ancestors." "If you dig up his ancestors, as you put it, why does he now have such warm feelings for you?" "Because I'm not now digging up his ancestors, I'm digging up yours." Ramirez was taken completely aback. "Mine?" "You're Cuban-American, aren't you? Well the guys out there in the ocean settled Havana."
Summer was the best season to do the excavation, but it was also hurricane season. Tension mounts when a hurricane forms far off in the ocean, and begins to head their way.
The hurricane's aftermath is fanciful, yet delightful. Excellent adventure, complex mystery, very entertaining. Great diagrams are included: a map of St. Magdalena island, the inside layout of the cofferdam making it possible for them to work on the sea floor, and a Spanish galleon.
St. Magdalena is a fictitious composite of actual barrier islands in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Georgia. According to Spanish archives, in 1588 Spanish galleon Estrella de España wrecked near the coast in a terrible storm. Dr. Lewis obtained funding for a million-dollar project: excavation of the ship. He assigned Lindsay's summer teaching responsibilities to archaeologist Gina Chapman, who came to UGA with him. Lindsay fears she's being edged out by her rival, but Dr. Lewis assures her he wants her on the dig for her expertise with bones (which he certainly needs for the skeletons they excavate).
The Magdalena House was a large dark cedar three-story structure that fit into the flora of the island as if it had grown there. Beside the walkway, separated from them only by height and railing, was an alligator pond. Lindsay searched the surface of the pond and spotted the brow ridge, head, and back of an alligator, so still in the water it could have been a log.
The oval dam, five miles out in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of one of Georgia's barrier islands, was a structural marvel that held back the ocean and allowed archaeologists to work on the ocean floor as if it were dry land. The interior of the cofferdam was enormous. Lindsay guessed about a hundred and fifty by eighty feet, perhaps larger. Damp metal walls loomed thirty-five feet above her head. It was like being in a giant well, but a reverse well in which the water is on the outside and the hole is dry.
Shortly after arriving at the dig, Lindsay is the first to discover a skeleton. Translator Harper Latham is at the site, painstakingly translating a diary in Spanish from the ship. Translated chapters of the 1588 diary are occasionally interspersed with the present-day account of the dig.
[1588] When the Captain-General of the fleet from flagship Nuestra Senora del Rosario and the king's General-Inspector Lopez from the Espiritu Viento dine on the Estrella, they dine on a feast fit for a king: six roasted chickens stuffed with rice, almonds, and raisins, broad beans and garlic, olives, honey cakes, and the best of the captain's wines. My stomach was joyful, so tired was it of dried fish, boiled pork, and dry biscuits.
As the translation progresses, Lindsay begins to identify the skeletons she examines, matching diary entries to other artifacts. Lindsay touched the indentations in the skull. She was, after all, a forensic anthropologist, and she recognized murder by blunt-force trauma to the head when she saw it. She hopes when the diary is completely translated, it will reveal what happened.
That shoe had survived for almost four hundred and forty years in the anaerobic environment of the ocean mud. Now that it was exposed to the air, it would deteriorate quickly. Once artifacts were uncovered, it was important to get them out of the ground and into an environment where they could be stabilized.
[1588] The diary writer is covertly on the ship as a spy. Smuggling gold and silver has long been a problem for the House of Trade, and they have all but ignored it. Perez, the new Governor of the House, thinks he can bring it under control, if he has the right information. I wonder. Smuggling is as established as the Church itself. He thinks that if he can make an example of a few, the rest will follow. But where there is such great wealth for the taking...I think it is a hopeless venture.
[1588] The man Sancho was accused of stealing from another sailor. These men have so little, I couldn't conceive what he could have stolen. I discovered that what he stole was a place to sleep. Imagine. Such are the conditions of the sailor.
But the dig is menaced by a sequence of crimes, from break-ins to theft of research notes, to motorboat sabotage, to desecration of artifacts, to murder. Dr. Lewis has heard of Lindsay's forensic work solving murders for law enforcement, and he commands her to investigate.
Dr. Lewis pushes the team to go faster, do more. "Odd. Lewis will like it." "Why is it that Lewis's likes and dislikes form everyone's standard of measurement?" "He writes the checks. Big checks." "Good point." He has a second goal for this dig, revealed only to a few.
Lindsay is hesitant at first about working with John West, an adversary at a previous dig (book 2). FBI agent Ramirez asks her, "At whom was he angry and why?" "At me, for digging up his ancestors." "If you dig up his ancestors, as you put it, why does he now have such warm feelings for you?" "Because I'm not now digging up his ancestors, I'm digging up yours." Ramirez was taken completely aback. "Mine?" "You're Cuban-American, aren't you? Well the guys out there in the ocean settled Havana."
Summer was the best season to do the excavation, but it was also hurricane season. Tension mounts when a hurricane forms far off in the ocean, and begins to head their way.
The hurricane's aftermath is fanciful, yet delightful. Excellent adventure, complex mystery, very entertaining. Great diagrams are included: a map of St. Magdalena island, the inside layout of the cofferdam making it possible for them to work on the sea floor, and a Spanish galleon.
August 24, 2008
I loved this book....I refer to it as a archaeological mystery. Archaeologists are excavating a ship off of the coast of Georgia, which would seem like a very mundane task....but not in this case. The head of the project is hoping to find a silver galleon, or a lost ship with treasure, which of course leads to sabbotage and murder (both in the present, as well as in the past...over 400 years ago). It's a mixture of Indiana Jones and Pirates of the Caribbean. Stephen Spielberg, if you're out there...I think this would make a great movie :-)
August 30, 2015
Liked this book - it deals with recovering a Spanish Galleon and uncovering the mystery involved in it's sinking, plus what is involved when recovering a ship wreck that is still submersed. Lindsay once again gets in "deep water", but manages to find the answers to most of the questions :)
Again there is a back story, but I didn't follow it too closely, because it was briefly covered in the main story.
2 thumbs up and 4 stars.
Again there is a back story, but I didn't follow it too closely, because it was briefly covered in the main story.
2 thumbs up and 4 stars.
October 2, 2019
3.5 stars. Except for the last bit, I liked this book. I enjoy the forensic bit and the addition of John was pretty brilliant and his construction company. The only bit I had a hard time believing was the scuba diving through a hurricane. That got to be too much. But, I enjoyed the story. Surprised that Frank and Derrick bowed out and Francisco Lewis and John were introduced. But they were definitely mire fleshed out characters.
October 12, 2019
I'm a sucker for sunken treasure! Imagine holding back the ocean to explore a lost Spanish galleon found off the coast of Georgia, to have a coded diary which may point to area a Spanish treasure ship went down, and imagine the plethora of scavengers wanting to find that treasure. Oh, AND a hurricane approaching at an inopportune time! The history, the characters, the "details" for the ship and its sailors and the heart-pounding denouement all add up to a great read!
February 22, 2025
Lindsay Chamberlain is part of a large crew excavating a 1558 Spanish Galleon. The excavating is ina cofferdam designed and built by John West’s company (Lindsay met John in a prior book; he is Native American and objects to archeologists digging up his people). Dr. Harper Latham is translating a diary that is related to the ship under excavation. As always with Lindsay Chamberlain, there is murder, intrigue, discovery and excitement.
October 5, 2019
The details!
These are great stories! There is so much detail, so many fascinating back stories, so much history coming alive. I enjoy the fluid and fun relationships, nothing static or boring here! I am hooked, having a blast, and learning.
These are great stories! There is so much detail, so many fascinating back stories, so much history coming alive. I enjoy the fluid and fun relationships, nothing static or boring here! I am hooked, having a blast, and learning.
July 14, 2024
Riveting!
I thought of the great Clive Cussler, the author of the Dirk Pitt series, the entire book. It reminded so much of his writing.
Fantastic weaving of dual time lines. This is one of the best books I've read this year and the entire series is so good!
I thought of the great Clive Cussler, the author of the Dirk Pitt series, the entire book. It reminded so much of his writing.
Fantastic weaving of dual time lines. This is one of the best books I've read this year and the entire series is so good!
November 17, 2025
Probably more of a 3.5, but rounded up because the archaeology stuff is still fascinating. I like the characters quite a bit and I appreciate the intricate plotting. Some of the revelations felt a little too out of the reader’s grasp but overall another strong entry. One more to go!
April 10, 2018
History and mystery
I love reading history and also love a good mystery. These books are well researched and tying the archaeology to written history is fascinating.
I love reading history and also love a good mystery. These books are well researched and tying the archaeology to written history is fascinating.
June 12, 2020
Another great mystery with lots of archaeology and history combined. A mystery in modern day Georgia and a Spanish sailing galleon of old.
November 5, 2023
Superb! These mysteries keep getting better and better but poor Lindsay always goes through so much!
June 15, 2009
Forensic anthropologist, academic, and bone expert, Lindsay Chamberlain is part of a team excavating a sunken Spanish galleon. A huge coffer dam has been constructed to hold back the Atlantic as the team excavates the wreck. Interspersed with the present day chapters, are ocassional excerpts from a journal of one of the ship's passengers. As present-day murder happens, the intricate dance of academic rivalry, treasure hunters and pothunters provide a complicated and interesting plot. Lindsay also starts a sweet romance with John West from previous novels.
This is a very good story with an exciting, supsenseful finish. I should have liked it better. It's like all the emotional resonance happens off-stage or off-camera. You are told how the characters feel but you don't experience their love, friendship, terror, or hope. There's a neat ending, but it's more mechanical than happy. It's too bad, the details and factual information about archaeological digs, the various controversies and dangers are very interesting, but the characters don't become living, breathing, thinking, feeling people to the reader.
There's one more in the series and I'll read it, ever hopeful for the glimmers and glances of what happens when interesting characters become human beings.
This is a very good story with an exciting, supsenseful finish. I should have liked it better. It's like all the emotional resonance happens off-stage or off-camera. You are told how the characters feel but you don't experience their love, friendship, terror, or hope. There's a neat ending, but it's more mechanical than happy. It's too bad, the details and factual information about archaeological digs, the various controversies and dangers are very interesting, but the characters don't become living, breathing, thinking, feeling people to the reader.
There's one more in the series and I'll read it, ever hopeful for the glimmers and glances of what happens when interesting characters become human beings.
November 11, 2013
Lindsay has a new nickname -- the Angel of Death -- and she does not like it very much. Trying to discourage its use, however, is difficult when, on a excavation trip to coastal Georgia, death happens. Normally searching for pirate's treasure would seem like a fun thing to do, and Lindsay is happy to be a part of an undersea dig to find the Estrella de Espana of the Spanish Galleon, which sank off the coast of Georgia hundreds of years ago. A blossoming relationship with John West (a supporting player from Questionable Remains) further lightens Lindsay's move. Then the killings begin.
Having hailed from Northern Florida, I am quite familiar with the area of which Beverly writes, and I did enjoy Skeleton Crew very much, more so than the rest of the series. The partnership of archaelogy and mystery will certainly provide endless ideas for this series, not to mention a history lesson or two.
Having hailed from Northern Florida, I am quite familiar with the area of which Beverly writes, and I did enjoy Skeleton Crew very much, more so than the rest of the series. The partnership of archaelogy and mystery will certainly provide endless ideas for this series, not to mention a history lesson or two.
March 18, 2009
Another series I have enjoyed. Lindsay Chamberlain is an archaeologist and so there's usually a good dose of history along with the odd body that turns up. This time what's cool is that she is working on a dig of a Spanish galleon on the ocean floor. There's some kind of amazing contraption that keeps the ocean away so they can excavate the wreckage. She solves a mysterya associated with the crew of the ship along with the modern crime that occurs on location.
August 27, 2010
By far my favorite of the Lindsay Chamberlain novels. I wish there were more. This heroine taps into my love of forensic science, and archaeology, and keeps me entertained throughout her books. I like the characters, and the suspense is just enough and not over the top. I can believe the characters are going through what they are.. and it's never a case of, "Oh, here they go again.." as so often happens when you follow a particular character or series.
March 23, 2019
This was a great forensic mystery. What they were able to tell from the bones makes sense. I really enjoy all the settings Lindsay ends up in. And the big traumatic scenes happen despite her best efforts not because of stupidity. I really like that in a heroine. This was the last on Beverly Connors books for me. I didn't track them all down in order. I really hope she writes a new book soon with Lindsay or Diane or someone new.
May 11, 2011
This was one of the best books in this series yet. I absolutely loved the dual story lines again and the big discovery towards the end! Also, I was so pleased with her love interest in this story. I knew it was coming because I've read One Grave Less, but I was so glad to finally get to that part of the plot.
August 27, 2012
i love this lindsay chamberlain, "nancy drew" type anthropologist working with the bones found on a spanish galleon lost at sea hundreds of years ago - but the ship is still in the ocean bottom, water held back by a cofferdam built by her love interest! that adds tension to the plot right away! good historic references - great read.
September 21, 2014
This one had me pacing all over the place, from one century to the next, one crew to the next, one murder to the next and I got it all wrong in both centuries, even though the clues were there. Beverly Connor's mind is always two steps ahead, or should I say Lindsey's? Great read -- even though I don't read mysteries!
June 28, 2016
Such a good book!
Either Beverly Connor is an incredibly smart lady, or she did a lot of spot-on research--probably both. There was so much going on, and it was at such a quick pace, and it was all so credible. I had trouble putting this book down to eat. I see a lot more Beverly Connor books in my future!
Either Beverly Connor is an incredibly smart lady, or she did a lot of spot-on research--probably both. There was so much going on, and it was at such a quick pace, and it was all so credible. I had trouble putting this book down to eat. I see a lot more Beverly Connor books in my future!
August 6, 2016
Excellent read!
This fun destroyer of sleep is painlessly educational. Archaeologist flesh out the remnants from our past showing people have pretty much always been people. "Skeleton Crew" maintains credibility amid complex plot lines. The science is real. This imaginative presentation of history repeating itself is a serendipitous find.
This fun destroyer of sleep is painlessly educational. Archaeologist flesh out the remnants from our past showing people have pretty much always been people. "Skeleton Crew" maintains credibility amid complex plot lines. The science is real. This imaginative presentation of history repeating itself is a serendipitous find.
December 28, 2016
I liked this one. Lindsay wasn't nearly as annoying as in others, the situations she wound up in seemed somewhat more plausible and she wasn't spending half the book trying not to "get involved" / solve a mystery. Also, I am enjoying the John West entanglement :)
This one was definitely an improvement on the last one!
This one was definitely an improvement on the last one!
Currently reading
July 29, 2008I was reading my mother's copy of this book, which she had taken out from her local library. Unfortunately, the weekend endeed, I returned South, and she returned the book. As a result, I have still read only about 1/2 of this book.
For what it is worth, I deeply enjoyed the half I read.
For what it is worth, I deeply enjoyed the half I read.
April 16, 2009
4th in the series. Lindsey joins a dig off the coast of Georgia on a cofferdam that John West built around a Spanish ship. Lindsay and John establish a more personal relationship while Lindsey searches for present day murderers and some from 440 years ago.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 7, 2016
How Beverly Connor combines ancient mysteries with current ones is remarkable and her attention to detail with respect to the field she addresses in each book is really engaging. I am really disappointed there is only one more book to go in this series.
July 7, 2024
Wow, what a creative and exciting plot! Without giving too much away, I can at least say that archaeologist Lindsay Chamberlain encounters a quicksand pit, a hurricane, killers, an alligator pond, and a wrecked ship full of gold.
November 15, 2011
Another L. Chamberlain book -- a delightful read!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews