What do you think?
Rate this book
Megan Clark #4
Tome of Death
This librarian and her reading group solve mysteries by the book.
Megan Clark must unravel the mystery behind a burial site in the Palo Duro Canyon containing two corpses--one a human skeleton, the other a mummy in Comanche garb--murdered more than 100 years apart.
Megan Clark must unravel the mystery behind a burial site in the Palo Duro Canyon containing two corpses--one a human skeleton, the other a mummy in Comanche garb--murdered more than 100 years apart.
225 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 1, 2005
1 person is currently reading
121 people want to read
About the author
D.R. Meredith
26 books31 followers(from Fantastic Fiction online)
D.R. Meredith, Doris to friends and family, has a split personality--by day, she is a conservatively dressed legal secretary at her husband Mike's law firm. By night she turns into Mrs. Hyde dressed in jeans, flip-flops, and Texas Rangers tee shirt, and commits bloody murder.
She is now in double digits. In her fourth book in the Megan Clark mystery series, the 18th book of her career, D.R. Meredith has just committed her 35th murder.
"I usually average 2 murders a book, because one murder in a closed circle of suspects usually leads to another in the accepted Agatha Christie fashion. In TOME OF DEATH there are two murders, but they occur 150 years apart. I like linking the past and present and exploring the effect our past has on our present. I can't tell how I use the past without giving a broad hint to the killer's identity, but I will say that human beings don't change over time except in dress and customs. My Comanche warrior amateur sleuth isn't all that different in emotional feelings from modern paleopathologist Megan Clark, except Megan isn't into scalping."
D.R. Meredith, Doris to friends and family, has a split personality--by day, she is a conservatively dressed legal secretary at her husband Mike's law firm. By night she turns into Mrs. Hyde dressed in jeans, flip-flops, and Texas Rangers tee shirt, and commits bloody murder.
She is now in double digits. In her fourth book in the Megan Clark mystery series, the 18th book of her career, D.R. Meredith has just committed her 35th murder.
"I usually average 2 murders a book, because one murder in a closed circle of suspects usually leads to another in the accepted Agatha Christie fashion. In TOME OF DEATH there are two murders, but they occur 150 years apart. I like linking the past and present and exploring the effect our past has on our present. I can't tell how I use the past without giving a broad hint to the killer's identity, but I will say that human beings don't change over time except in dress and customs. My Comanche warrior amateur sleuth isn't all that different in emotional feelings from modern paleopathologist Megan Clark, except Megan isn't into scalping."
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 12, 2022
Someone brutally murdered Jessica Murphy five years before this book opens. As the book opens, you meet a group of folks from Amarillo who have ventured into the Palo Duro Canyon for a picnic and a book club discussion. Dr. Megan Clark is a forensic biologist by degree, but alas, because there are very few mummies in Texas, she can work only as a reference librarian. Megan is a short redhead in her 20s; the guy who is in love with her, Ryan, is in his 40s, and he is the father of Megan's best friend. That's the part of this series that creeps me out. I try to overlook it as best I can because the plots otherwise are reasonably OK. This appears to be the last book in the series to which I have access. This book may have been one of the best plotted books in the entire series.
Megan brings her two Beagle dogs with her to the picnic. One is dying of throat cancer. She brings the dog as a last outdoor experience that they can have together. It is technically the dogs who find the body. Jessica disappeared five years earlier. When the dogs found Jessica's skeleton, they also unearthed the mummified remains of what appeared to be a white girl who died more than 100 years earlier. Someone buried those remains near Jessica. The book is interesting in its plot because it takes you back and forth through time between the death of a girl captured by the Comanches in 1868 and the death of Jessica Murphy more than 100 years later. quite frankly, I found the story of the Comanche warrior grieving for the murder of his captive white wife more intriguing than the present-day story of the death of Jessica Murphy.
This is a short book, and you will blow through it in no time if you decide to read it. It isn't going to change your life, and you'll probably come away with a certain level of frustration at some of the characters. The romance between Megan and her friend apostrophe's dad seems a little odd to me. It's not even actually a romance. The two insist that whatever they have is strictly platonic. You can read otherwise if you read between the lines, as it were. The Megan Clark character bothers me on occasion, too. She is a bit too much of a firebrand. Don't tell her she's cute. You will live to regret that. Apparently, her diminutive figure, that curly red hair, and all those freckles have garnered her the cute accolade from people who wish they hadn't said it by the time she finished with them. The other members of the book club aren't all that well developed, so you don't know them to any real degree. That said, I have enjoyed this series.
Megan brings her two Beagle dogs with her to the picnic. One is dying of throat cancer. She brings the dog as a last outdoor experience that they can have together. It is technically the dogs who find the body. Jessica disappeared five years earlier. When the dogs found Jessica's skeleton, they also unearthed the mummified remains of what appeared to be a white girl who died more than 100 years earlier. Someone buried those remains near Jessica. The book is interesting in its plot because it takes you back and forth through time between the death of a girl captured by the Comanches in 1868 and the death of Jessica Murphy more than 100 years later. quite frankly, I found the story of the Comanche warrior grieving for the murder of his captive white wife more intriguing than the present-day story of the death of Jessica Murphy.
This is a short book, and you will blow through it in no time if you decide to read it. It isn't going to change your life, and you'll probably come away with a certain level of frustration at some of the characters. The romance between Megan and her friend apostrophe's dad seems a little odd to me. It's not even actually a romance. The two insist that whatever they have is strictly platonic. You can read otherwise if you read between the lines, as it were. The Megan Clark character bothers me on occasion, too. She is a bit too much of a firebrand. Don't tell her she's cute. You will live to regret that. Apparently, her diminutive figure, that curly red hair, and all those freckles have garnered her the cute accolade from people who wish they hadn't said it by the time she finished with them. The other members of the book club aren't all that well developed, so you don't know them to any real degree. That said, I have enjoyed this series.
December 25, 2015
This is the first time I read this author. This book I believe is the fourth in a series. I found the book light reading. I enjoyed the double mystery the one taking place in today's time and the one taking place 130 years in the past.
The author knows her Amerindian cultures and I that added to the book. I really enjoyed the part of the book set in the past with the Comanche tribe. The author dove tailed the two mysteries together very well with both motive and how the new investigating the murders solved them.
My issue with the book was the two main characters in the present. I don't like Ryan and his frantic worry that Megan is going to get hurt so he does everything in his power to try and stop her from investigating. That got old really quick. I prefer my sleuths to be more partners in their investigations. Along the lines of Annie and Max Darling in Carolyn Hart's Death on Demand series.
If I can find any of the other in the series at the library or online cheap I may pick p the first in the series. But I don't see myself adding this author to my must reads of mystery novels.
The author knows her Amerindian cultures and I that added to the book. I really enjoyed the part of the book set in the past with the Comanche tribe. The author dove tailed the two mysteries together very well with both motive and how the new investigating the murders solved them.
My issue with the book was the two main characters in the present. I don't like Ryan and his frantic worry that Megan is going to get hurt so he does everything in his power to try and stop her from investigating. That got old really quick. I prefer my sleuths to be more partners in their investigations. Along the lines of Annie and Max Darling in Carolyn Hart's Death on Demand series.
If I can find any of the other in the series at the library or online cheap I may pick p the first in the series. But I don't see myself adding this author to my must reads of mystery novels.
July 6, 2012
This book is about the investigation of two murders. One took place many years ago in a Native American tribe. The other was more recent, and that is the one that the members of the Murder by the Yard book club concern themselves with. I found it distracting that the story bounced back and forth between the two murders. It was also distracting that sometimes the modern day story was told in the first person by Ryan and other times in the third person. The relationship between Megan and Ryan got to be a little silly as well.
July 27, 2011
Okay, started off good and then.... the main character veered off into not very likable. This is the fourth in the series, but the first I've read. But it seemed uneven and not thought out about mid-way. Everytime I think I could write a book, I read one that started promising and then fails. There is a reason J.K. Rowling is rich, people! Not everyone can write well.
December 29, 2015
A bit better than the second and third in the series, but I wish the author would put her scholarly introductions at the end. I skipped this one, as I wasn't interested enough in the topic. These are supposed to be cosy mysteries, not scholarly treatises.
I think this author takes herself too seriously.
I think this author takes herself too seriously.
July 28, 2016
Parts of the book were enjoyable enough that I laughed out loud, but overall the characters weren't gripping, and the age difference was actually fairly disturbing to me. Animal ownership was the best and most realistic part of it. I would definitely try something else by the author, but this series may not be my cup of tea.
August 27, 2015
A decent cozy that had an interesting twist, with both a modern and a historical mystery. Pretty obvious on the killer and the interactions between the two main characters read a little weird and awkward, but still pretty decent.
October 3, 2012
A nice easy read, but not as good as the last book. I did like the juxtaposition of the modern mystery and the 1860's Comanche murder mystery.
June 6, 2016
The different storylines were sometimes confusing, but both were good stories.
September 16, 2008
Fourth in the 'reading club' mystery series. Interesting double mystery format.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews