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Diane Fallon #3
Dead Secret
In the depths of an unmapped cave, forensic anthropologist Diane Fallon makes an astonishing discovery: the decades-old skeleton of a caving victim. Soon, the remains of two more bodies are found—one in an old car submerged in the waters of an abandoned quarry, another buried in the Georgia woods. At first, with nothing to link the dissimilar victims except desiccated bones, Diane can’t fathom the connection. But someone in her shadow does. It’s the key to a mystery that reaches back seventy years in a heritage of love, greed, and murder—and an unearthed family secret that still holds the power to kill.
396 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 6, 2005
31 people are currently reading
668 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 82 reviews
May 14, 2015
A really great read with lots of likeable and unlikeable characters carried over from the first books in this series. Lots of twists and turns and not just in the caves that they venture into. A few red herrings and a couple of side cases merging into one another make this book hard to put down.
Highly recommend this book to anyone that loves forensic investigations.
2 thumbs up and a solid 5 stars
Highly recommend this book to anyone that loves forensic investigations.
2 thumbs up and a solid 5 stars
October 29, 2015
Beverly Connor’s writing style is very easy to understand and since “Dead Secret” is a mystery novel, I feel that it is important to have a storyline that makes sense and is flowing. Connor has both of those which makes her novels enjoyable, as there are many plot twists and times when I think I know who the culprit is but there are so many other characters that could potentially be the killer. The main character, Diane Fallon, a museum director and forensic investigator, has a likeable personality that loosens up the suspense made but helps to keep the story going. (As Clear as Crystal)
Dr. Fallon’s actions are parallel to her personality and profession. As a forensic investigator and museum director, she takes action swiftly and efficiently. She tends to think ahead during arguments or conflicts and is smart enough to know better than to let her emotions get the best of her. She takes into account the consequences of her actions and how it will affect the museum as well as her employees which makes her more aware and tactful of what she says. Another big thing that stands out is that Diane is very persistent and works hard to solve murders. Another main character, Mike, who is a geologist, is like Diane and has a very wide range of vocabulary, particularly using words that are scientific. It is easy to understand how much he likes his job of caving even though it’s quite a dangerous and tiring one. He seems like someone who jokes around a lot, but he’s actually loyal and determined to carry out jobs even when he was hospitalized from being stabbed. (Like Flowers in Spring)
Dr. Fallon’s actions are parallel to her personality and profession. As a forensic investigator and museum director, she takes action swiftly and efficiently. She tends to think ahead during arguments or conflicts and is smart enough to know better than to let her emotions get the best of her. She takes into account the consequences of her actions and how it will affect the museum as well as her employees which makes her more aware and tactful of what she says. Another big thing that stands out is that Diane is very persistent and works hard to solve murders. Another main character, Mike, who is a geologist, is like Diane and has a very wide range of vocabulary, particularly using words that are scientific. It is easy to understand how much he likes his job of caving even though it’s quite a dangerous and tiring one. He seems like someone who jokes around a lot, but he’s actually loyal and determined to carry out jobs even when he was hospitalized from being stabbed. (Like Flowers in Spring)
June 16, 2015
I am really warming up to this series. With each book the author is refining her characters. Dr. Fallon and her staff at the museum and in the crime lab are finding their personalities, strengths and weaknesses. Diane's relationship with Frank and his adopted daughter is maturing into a comfortable respite and way for Fallon to work through theories away from the multiple cases she is handling as head of the Crime Lab and Director of her museum.
I love the trickle down knowledge in so many fields. forensics, anthropology, caving, and with Dead Secret some fascinating information on museum conservation techniques and the use of bugs to clean the bones of all the bodies which keep surfacing. It's not an info dump but rather an interesting side bar which adds to the various and varied story threads.
Connors plots are becoming more and more complex. This book touches on identity theft, caving, ancient bones sent from across the pond and inappropriate workplace behaviour. Lots going on and yet the author keeps all her story balls in the air. Not an easy feat.
I also love the way the various bodies are named by their location rather than simply Jane or John Doe for the most part. My favourites in this books were Diver Doe and Plymouth Doe. Every time they are referenced I know exactly which crime the characters are referring to. It's fun.
Loving the series. Thanks for the recommendation BigD.
I love the trickle down knowledge in so many fields. forensics, anthropology, caving, and with Dead Secret some fascinating information on museum conservation techniques and the use of bugs to clean the bones of all the bodies which keep surfacing. It's not an info dump but rather an interesting side bar which adds to the various and varied story threads.
Connors plots are becoming more and more complex. This book touches on identity theft, caving, ancient bones sent from across the pond and inappropriate workplace behaviour. Lots going on and yet the author keeps all her story balls in the air. Not an easy feat.
I also love the way the various bodies are named by their location rather than simply Jane or John Doe for the most part. My favourites in this books were Diver Doe and Plymouth Doe. Every time they are referenced I know exactly which crime the characters are referring to. It's fun.
Loving the series. Thanks for the recommendation BigD.
June 22, 2009
Connor has two mystery series with forensic anthropologists. I said in a review of the other series that the emotional life of the main character is unsatisfactory because it is merely reported on rather than experienced. This series with museum-and-crime-lab-director, Diane Fallon, does the same thing but is much more successful. Probably because Fallon herself is very work oriented in a way to control her complex feelings and relationships.
Diane and a couple of co-workers are exploring an unmapped cave and come across a decades old mummified body. This discovery is curious and her crime lab team seek to solve the puzzle. At the same time, other bodies are discovered, seemingly unrelated. However, the relationships begin to emerge as the forensic team uncovers and connects the facts. There are also personal attacks on all the members of the team who discovered the first body.
What follows is a suspenseful--even scary--series of events that further reveal Fallon's personal history. The mystery unfolds more insights on her family as well as on her current relationships. The mystery reveals the enduring power of bitterness, the bullying power of money and politics, as well as the conflict between family of birth and family of choice. As with all her Fallon books, it is intense, dark, and violent right down to the very last word in the very last sentence.
Diane and a couple of co-workers are exploring an unmapped cave and come across a decades old mummified body. This discovery is curious and her crime lab team seek to solve the puzzle. At the same time, other bodies are discovered, seemingly unrelated. However, the relationships begin to emerge as the forensic team uncovers and connects the facts. There are also personal attacks on all the members of the team who discovered the first body.
What follows is a suspenseful--even scary--series of events that further reveal Fallon's personal history. The mystery unfolds more insights on her family as well as on her current relationships. The mystery reveals the enduring power of bitterness, the bullying power of money and politics, as well as the conflict between family of birth and family of choice. As with all her Fallon books, it is intense, dark, and violent right down to the very last word in the very last sentence.
July 18, 2015
This was an excellent mystery with plenty of twists and turns. Love the character Diane Fallon!! And bones...bones can be so interesting!!!!!
April 21, 2019
Superhuman protagonist woman narrowly defies death by almost falling into an abyss, discovers decades-old murder victim along with previously unknown evidence, and receives the body of a witch basically before breakfast. Uh huh. Then I read a bunch of reviews that say the ending is a dud. DNF
November 3, 2017
4.5 stars
December 8, 2021
Fast paced thriller with our intrepid museum director/caver/forensic anthropologist getting into bizarre situations.
July 1, 2025
Dead Secret by Beverly Connor is the third book of the Diane Fallon mystery series set in contemporary Georgia.
"Diane has several jobs.” Diane suppressed a smile. Susan made it sound like she worked at McDonald’s during the week and Waffle House on weekends. “I’m director of the RiverTrail Museum of Natural History, as well as the director of the Rosewood Crime Lab and the Aidan Kavanagh Forensic Anthropology Lab.”
Forensic anthropologist Diane Fallon is an enthusiastic, experienced and safe caver. The passage was maybe twenty feet long, barely wider than her shoulders, the ceiling two feet high at its highest, sixteen inches at its lowest—a tight fit. Loose stones scraped through her clothes from her chest to her abdomen and down her back. Of all the places she could be, this was the best—the dark, secret places of a cave.
On a caving trip, she finds a decades-old murder victim she nicknames "Caver Doe". Clues around and on the body dated him to the 1940s. “Natural mummification. The tissues have been partially preserved by the dry air of the cave.”
Levi’s pre-1936 jeans had a back cinch. The back cinch was a little minibelt that tightened the waist. They were called waist overalls back then, not blue jeans. His jeans also have a crotch rivet. The crotch rivet and the back cinch were removed during World War Two to save on metal and fabric and never used again. That dates them to before the Second World War. In 1937 the company changed the way they sewed the back pockets, so the material would cover the rivets. That was because the cowboys complained that the metal rivets scratched their saddles—they were marketing to cowboys, and cowboys were particular about their saddles. Caver Doe’s jeans also had suspender buttons. All that puts them before 1937. Now, what Caver Doe’s jeans didn’t have was a red label. The company started sewing the red label in 1936 so Levi’s could be recognized at a distance. Caver Doe’s jeans did have belt loops. Those were first added in 1922.
“A Mickey Mouse flashlight?” “Made by USALite. Shows Mickey Mouse walking in the dark with a flashlight. It dates to 1935."
Moon Pies wrappers from the nineteen-forties.
Diane found the unearthly appearance ironic—nothing was more of the earth than a cave.
Diane tries to keep the news of her caving accident from her lover Frank, but fails. The last thing she wanted to hear from Frank tonight was a lecture on the dangers of caving. Noncavers just didn’t understand the allure of caves—and it wasn’t like she had accidents every weekend.
“Do you have some kind of compass that points you to dead bodies?”
“What good luck you had your crime scene people with you.”
Life with Frank would be great, and he had certainly hinted that they should marry, but Diane was convinced that they got along so well because they saw each other so little. They were never in each other’s pockets, tripping over each other’s feet, or irritated by each other’s idiosyncrasies.
Then an automobile containing another murder victim is recovered from a lake. Evidence links the bodies. Meanwhile, a supposed witch's bones are shipped from England for Diane to examine in the crime lab within her museum.
"Is that all the crime scenes we have at the moment?” said Diane. She hoped that the murderers in the area would hold off killing anyone until her team got caught up.
“If I’m gonna live that long, I’d hate to live most of my life as an old woman,” Andie said. “Spoken like a youngster,” a soft voice behind her said.
She could do a five-seven, a five-eight or -nine in a pinch. Only a handful of elite rock climbers could handle a rock face with a five-fourteen degree of difficulty—it required an enormous amount of skill and strength.
Of course, Diane has to "play nice" with all the relevant law enforcement agencies, and all their petty power antics. He sat on the bumper of his Lumpkin County patrol car with his arms folded in a manner that Diane had seen young children do when they were in full pout mode.
sometimes letting people have their say defused their hard feelings.
A series of attacks by various unknown parties almost succeed in stealing the bones from the museum. As attacks escalate, Diane's loyal crew trace a complicated web of clues.
The dental formula for an adult human was two, one, two, three. Two incisors, one canine, two premolars and three molars—the number of upper and lower teeth on one side, thirty-two in all.
Ribs were one of the best places to look for marks left by weapons. Gunshots and knives to the torso could hardly miss them.
One of the vicious attacks is on Diane's mother - through no fault of her own, victim of a computer hacker, she's sent to prison. The prison was built just after World War II and meant to house only four hundred inmates at most. The current population hovered around two thousand and was little more than a warehouse for women prisoners. Tombsberg didn’t have any educational programs, rehabilitation programs, occupational programs or any other activities to occupy the prisoners’ time. It was riddled with disease, and medical care was better in third-world countries. On any list of prisons, Tombsberg would rank at the bottom.
the upper part of the left femur, the greater trochanter, a prominence where the gluteals, iliopsoas, and piriformis muscles attached to the bone.
Things were going smoothly, and that always made her a little nervous. She went to bed that evening waiting for the other shoe to drop. Frank told her that she was turning into a pessimist.
Isotope analysis of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, strontium and lead from her teeth could give interesting results about where she was actually from. These elements were taken into the body through the food that was eaten, the air that was breathed, and the water that was drunk as a person was growing, and became a fixed part of their chemical makeup. The proportions of the chemicals deposited in the teeth were different in different locales throughout the world. The chemical analyses would tell where she grew up.
Diane and her crime lab crew eventually discover the identities of the remains, and the mastermind criminal behind the attacks. Even with a mountain of evidence against them, the rich and powerful often weren’t convicted—Despite the tremendous power of wealth, justice prevails in the end.
"Diane has several jobs.” Diane suppressed a smile. Susan made it sound like she worked at McDonald’s during the week and Waffle House on weekends. “I’m director of the RiverTrail Museum of Natural History, as well as the director of the Rosewood Crime Lab and the Aidan Kavanagh Forensic Anthropology Lab.”
Forensic anthropologist Diane Fallon is an enthusiastic, experienced and safe caver. The passage was maybe twenty feet long, barely wider than her shoulders, the ceiling two feet high at its highest, sixteen inches at its lowest—a tight fit. Loose stones scraped through her clothes from her chest to her abdomen and down her back. Of all the places she could be, this was the best—the dark, secret places of a cave.
On a caving trip, she finds a decades-old murder victim she nicknames "Caver Doe". Clues around and on the body dated him to the 1940s. “Natural mummification. The tissues have been partially preserved by the dry air of the cave.”
Levi’s pre-1936 jeans had a back cinch. The back cinch was a little minibelt that tightened the waist. They were called waist overalls back then, not blue jeans. His jeans also have a crotch rivet. The crotch rivet and the back cinch were removed during World War Two to save on metal and fabric and never used again. That dates them to before the Second World War. In 1937 the company changed the way they sewed the back pockets, so the material would cover the rivets. That was because the cowboys complained that the metal rivets scratched their saddles—they were marketing to cowboys, and cowboys were particular about their saddles. Caver Doe’s jeans also had suspender buttons. All that puts them before 1937. Now, what Caver Doe’s jeans didn’t have was a red label. The company started sewing the red label in 1936 so Levi’s could be recognized at a distance. Caver Doe’s jeans did have belt loops. Those were first added in 1922.
“A Mickey Mouse flashlight?” “Made by USALite. Shows Mickey Mouse walking in the dark with a flashlight. It dates to 1935."
Moon Pies wrappers from the nineteen-forties.
Diane found the unearthly appearance ironic—nothing was more of the earth than a cave.
Diane tries to keep the news of her caving accident from her lover Frank, but fails. The last thing she wanted to hear from Frank tonight was a lecture on the dangers of caving. Noncavers just didn’t understand the allure of caves—and it wasn’t like she had accidents every weekend.
“Do you have some kind of compass that points you to dead bodies?”
“What good luck you had your crime scene people with you.”
Life with Frank would be great, and he had certainly hinted that they should marry, but Diane was convinced that they got along so well because they saw each other so little. They were never in each other’s pockets, tripping over each other’s feet, or irritated by each other’s idiosyncrasies.
Then an automobile containing another murder victim is recovered from a lake. Evidence links the bodies. Meanwhile, a supposed witch's bones are shipped from England for Diane to examine in the crime lab within her museum.
"Is that all the crime scenes we have at the moment?” said Diane. She hoped that the murderers in the area would hold off killing anyone until her team got caught up.
“If I’m gonna live that long, I’d hate to live most of my life as an old woman,” Andie said. “Spoken like a youngster,” a soft voice behind her said.
She could do a five-seven, a five-eight or -nine in a pinch. Only a handful of elite rock climbers could handle a rock face with a five-fourteen degree of difficulty—it required an enormous amount of skill and strength.
Of course, Diane has to "play nice" with all the relevant law enforcement agencies, and all their petty power antics. He sat on the bumper of his Lumpkin County patrol car with his arms folded in a manner that Diane had seen young children do when they were in full pout mode.
sometimes letting people have their say defused their hard feelings.
A series of attacks by various unknown parties almost succeed in stealing the bones from the museum. As attacks escalate, Diane's loyal crew trace a complicated web of clues.
The dental formula for an adult human was two, one, two, three. Two incisors, one canine, two premolars and three molars—the number of upper and lower teeth on one side, thirty-two in all.
Ribs were one of the best places to look for marks left by weapons. Gunshots and knives to the torso could hardly miss them.
One of the vicious attacks is on Diane's mother - through no fault of her own, victim of a computer hacker, she's sent to prison. The prison was built just after World War II and meant to house only four hundred inmates at most. The current population hovered around two thousand and was little more than a warehouse for women prisoners. Tombsberg didn’t have any educational programs, rehabilitation programs, occupational programs or any other activities to occupy the prisoners’ time. It was riddled with disease, and medical care was better in third-world countries. On any list of prisons, Tombsberg would rank at the bottom.
the upper part of the left femur, the greater trochanter, a prominence where the gluteals, iliopsoas, and piriformis muscles attached to the bone.
Things were going smoothly, and that always made her a little nervous. She went to bed that evening waiting for the other shoe to drop. Frank told her that she was turning into a pessimist.
Isotope analysis of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, strontium and lead from her teeth could give interesting results about where she was actually from. These elements were taken into the body through the food that was eaten, the air that was breathed, and the water that was drunk as a person was growing, and became a fixed part of their chemical makeup. The proportions of the chemicals deposited in the teeth were different in different locales throughout the world. The chemical analyses would tell where she grew up.
Diane and her crime lab crew eventually discover the identities of the remains, and the mastermind criminal behind the attacks. Even with a mountain of evidence against them, the rich and powerful often weren’t convicted—Despite the tremendous power of wealth, justice prevails in the end.
June 9, 2010
4.0 out of 5 stars Great series for those interested less in gore and more in science,, January 22, 2009
This review is from: Dead Secret (Diane Fallon Forensic Investigation, No. 3) (Paperback)
These are great mysteries with not much gore or grisly murders. Diane is smart (she knows everything and can do everything) and the details about so many different subjects make the novels very interesting. We learn tidbits about forensics, archeology, paleontology, osteology, botany, entomology, anthropology, medicine, police procedure, crime scene investigation and forensic art/sculpture (don't think I left something out but may have). I enjoy all the facts and the science and find all the information quite educational. I'm beginning to develop a real fondness for the recurring characters as well. Can't wait for #4.
This review is from: Dead Secret (Diane Fallon Forensic Investigation, No. 3) (Paperback)
These are great mysteries with not much gore or grisly murders. Diane is smart (she knows everything and can do everything) and the details about so many different subjects make the novels very interesting. We learn tidbits about forensics, archeology, paleontology, osteology, botany, entomology, anthropology, medicine, police procedure, crime scene investigation and forensic art/sculpture (don't think I left something out but may have). I enjoy all the facts and the science and find all the information quite educational. I'm beginning to develop a real fondness for the recurring characters as well. Can't wait for #4.
July 12, 2024
A really fun ride. There are a lot of different things going on all at once, and it’s really entertaining watching the characters figure each one out. There’s danger and thrills along with interesting history and science wrapped into it.
Some of the dialogue is awkward and not super well written, but overall, a very fun time! I definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys thrillers and mysteries.
Some of the dialogue is awkward and not super well written, but overall, a very fun time! I definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys thrillers and mysteries.
February 4, 2017
Not a fan. Many things in the story made me go "Really" - witches bones show up while there is a murder investigation and not related to the story. I have never been to a museum which sells steak and baked potato in the restaurant. There wasn't even a "twist" to the story. Would never recommend this book to anyone.
March 25, 2014
This has been the best so far of the Diane Fallon series. There were some great twists and turns to keep up with. The character is interesting with some totally bizarre things happening to her and her friends and co workers. Really enjoyed the book.
May 21, 2012
ok mystery book. ending was a bit rushed and the subplot of the "rabbit fan" could have been better used in another book, imo.
May 13, 2022
This is the third in the series with forensic anthropologist Diane Fallon. I thought I would be giving this story -- whose centerpiece plot line involves a body that is found deep in a cave -- three stars. There are just too many things going on in this one, and all I wanted to read about was the cave!
But! I love it when I'm surprised, and there is something here that I definitely did not see coming.
But! I love it when I'm surprised, and there is something here that I definitely did not see coming.
February 3, 2019
These books just get better
This author has a wonderful ability of creating several situations, weaving them together and working thru them to create endings that are sometimes unrelated. Sound complicated? It is yet it makes for an intelligent and interesting read. She knows how to keep you guessing.
This author has a wonderful ability of creating several situations, weaving them together and working thru them to create endings that are sometimes unrelated. Sound complicated? It is yet it makes for an intelligent and interesting read. She knows how to keep you guessing.
February 26, 2025
Diane Fallon finds a mummified body while mapping a cave. She also finds an old Calvary button. The two discoveries set off a chain of events starting with geologist, Mike Seger, and Diane both being stabbed. As they investigate, more things happen resulting in more crime scenes and more murders, plus a threat to both Diane’s mother and the museum.
March 3, 2025
Nagyon szerettem, sajnos nem volt olyan sok időm olvasni. Nem tudtam lerakni, eldöntöttem, hogy jó csak 1 fejezet, de mindig úgy végződött, hogy muszáj volt még egyet elolvasnom. Nem olvastam sok ilyen nyomozós könyvet, sokat tanultam a témáról. De maga a sztori is magával ragadó. Szerethető karakterek, csodásan megírt történet.
April 22, 2020
This series is really very silly. Nothing is remotely realistic and the number of Mary Sues parading around Atlanta suburbs is a bit startling.
But it's great mindless reading, if that's your thing nowadays. It is mine!
But it's great mindless reading, if that's your thing nowadays. It is mine!
November 5, 2023
Book 3 in the series. This story starts with a mysterious skeleton found in a cave. Then, 2 more bodies show up in a local quarry. Another skeleton, vandalism, theft and out of left field weird crank phone calls. This book had so many twists and turns. I’m loved it.
May 19, 2025
I jumped into this series with this book. Totally possible to follow along and not feel like I missed something by not reading the first 2 in the series.
Lots of characters but it was easy to keep them straight and I felt that I got to know them.
Lots of characters but it was easy to keep them straight and I felt that I got to know them.
June 15, 2017
Pleasant read. I liked the characters & enjoyed learning about the forensics side.
August 5, 2017
A very entertaining series. I like both the forensic and museum elements.
September 3, 2017
Still waiting to find out what happened to her daughter, but Connor is improving as a writer.
November 17, 2018
The ending was weak
Generally the book was a good read. However the end kind of drug on. The ending was not very exciting.
Generally the book was a good read. However the end kind of drug on. The ending was not very exciting.
Want to read
July 19, 2020elibrary
June 21, 2021
Recurrent white-knuckle excitement.
February 5, 2025
Really enjoyed this one.
March 19, 2017
Love this series!
November 22, 2015
As I’ve said with previous books in this series, I liked this book, but… It is becoming clear that these are going to be the kind of cheap thrill reads that are well written, but still a little cookie cutter with certain aspects.
In every book so far in the series, Diane is put into a situation where she is in danger and attacked. Once or twice I’ll buy, but not in every single book, or worse like this one, more than once in a single book. She is a museum director and crime scene specialist. She is not a cop on the front line, so her, and her team, shouldn’t be in danger with every case they take on. That pushes things into the realm of the ridiculous and unrealistic.
There is also the element of just way too much going on and an insane number of coincidences and connections to tie nearly all of those seemingly random threads together. The multiple plot lines are a common thing with these books, but this one kind of seemed as if it was a challenge to see how many different lines and coincidences could be worked into a single story.
As I said, this was good and I’ll most likely read the other books in this series because they are entertaining, but I will do so knowing how completely unrealistic they are and to not take them as serious crime dramas.
In every book so far in the series, Diane is put into a situation where she is in danger and attacked. Once or twice I’ll buy, but not in every single book, or worse like this one, more than once in a single book. She is a museum director and crime scene specialist. She is not a cop on the front line, so her, and her team, shouldn’t be in danger with every case they take on. That pushes things into the realm of the ridiculous and unrealistic.
There is also the element of just way too much going on and an insane number of coincidences and connections to tie nearly all of those seemingly random threads together. The multiple plot lines are a common thing with these books, but this one kind of seemed as if it was a challenge to see how many different lines and coincidences could be worked into a single story.
As I said, this was good and I’ll most likely read the other books in this series because they are entertaining, but I will do so knowing how completely unrealistic they are and to not take them as serious crime dramas.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews