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Emma Fielding Mystery #2
Grave Consequences
Archaeologist Emma Fielding is beginning to doubt the wisdom of spending her vacation in England helping friends excavate a twelfth-century abbey, especially when they uncover an all-too-modern skeleton in a nearby medieval graveyard. But it's the second discovery--of a murdered graduate student recently missing from the dig--that suggests to Emma that Marchester isn't exactly the quiet riverside town that it appears to be. There are dark passions and lethal secrets buried here, heinous crimes that shake the conflicted community to its core. And it's up to Emma, an outsider far from home, to delve into a past that too many people--including her friends--would do anything to hide.
368 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
About the author
Dana Cameron
47 books107 followers[From the author's own website]
I was born and raised in New England and I live in Massachusetts now, with my husband and benevolent feline overlords. Mine is a quiet, fairly ordinary life. I love that because it's what saves me from an overdeveloped sense of paranoia and a tendency to expect the worst. Combined with an eye for detail and a quirky take on life, these traits give me a vivid internal life, one that's sometimes a little nerve-wracking, but very useful for writing mystery and suspense.
My interest in archaeology stems from childhood, where my interest in books and the opportunities I had to travel made me begin to think about cultural differences. The thing I like best about this work is that it is a real opportunity to try and resurrect individuals from the monolith of history. I've worked on prehistoric and historical sites in the U.S. and in Europe, and like to teach, in the field, in museums, in the classroom, and through writing.
In my first book, Site Unseen, my protagonist Emma Fielding discovers that archaeologists are trained to ask the same questions that detectives ask: who, what, where, when, how, and why. When I started on these books, I realized that archaeology is also good training for writing because research, logic, and persistence are so important to both endeavors.
Naturally, that training worked with the archaeology mysteries--and it also helped with my first short story, "The Lords of Misrule," a historical mystery which appeared in the anthology, Sugarplums and Scandal. But how has it worked when I've tackled subjects as seemingly diverse as werewolves ("The Night Things Changed" in Wolfsbane and Mistletoe and "Swing Shift" in Crimes By Moonlight) and noir ("Femme Sole," in Boston Noir)? Easy: it's all about getting into someone else's shoes and walking around for a while. Preferably, getting into (fictional) trouble while you do it. Asking "what if?" and thinking about how culture and subcultures--in addition to personality--shape behavior.
I was born and raised in New England and I live in Massachusetts now, with my husband and benevolent feline overlords. Mine is a quiet, fairly ordinary life. I love that because it's what saves me from an overdeveloped sense of paranoia and a tendency to expect the worst. Combined with an eye for detail and a quirky take on life, these traits give me a vivid internal life, one that's sometimes a little nerve-wracking, but very useful for writing mystery and suspense.
My interest in archaeology stems from childhood, where my interest in books and the opportunities I had to travel made me begin to think about cultural differences. The thing I like best about this work is that it is a real opportunity to try and resurrect individuals from the monolith of history. I've worked on prehistoric and historical sites in the U.S. and in Europe, and like to teach, in the field, in museums, in the classroom, and through writing.
In my first book, Site Unseen, my protagonist Emma Fielding discovers that archaeologists are trained to ask the same questions that detectives ask: who, what, where, when, how, and why. When I started on these books, I realized that archaeology is also good training for writing because research, logic, and persistence are so important to both endeavors.
Naturally, that training worked with the archaeology mysteries--and it also helped with my first short story, "The Lords of Misrule," a historical mystery which appeared in the anthology, Sugarplums and Scandal. But how has it worked when I've tackled subjects as seemingly diverse as werewolves ("The Night Things Changed" in Wolfsbane and Mistletoe and "Swing Shift" in Crimes By Moonlight) and noir ("Femme Sole," in Boston Noir)? Easy: it's all about getting into someone else's shoes and walking around for a while. Preferably, getting into (fictional) trouble while you do it. Asking "what if?" and thinking about how culture and subcultures--in addition to personality--shape behavior.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
May 26, 2013
Rarely can I be bothered to write a bad review, but this book was torture. Having read the first one and not really enjoyed the author's style of writing I thought I'd give the second book in the series a try, just in case it could convert me. I have an interest in archaeology and crime fiction so I really wanted to find something to like, but alas it wasn't to be. Apart from the infuriating stereotypes about the British she parades through the book (such as the fact that we all drink tea and don't even have coffee in our cupboards for our American guests), the main character Emma Fielding is a first class b****h. I've never hated a character in a book so much. I usually keep books on my Kindle after I've read them as I'm a collector, but this one has been deleted.
July 21, 2016
Meh. Stopped and finished at 250 of 350 pgs. My dislike for the top two female characters became overpowering. The main was doing all of her butting into everyone's biz under the premise that she was just helping her friend who continuously rebuffed her help. They were annoying and very unlikable.
August 30, 2010
Rather tedious.
Cameron obviously knows her field but she needs to work on development and tying things in.
There was no background or purpose in why Emma Fielding felt the need to investigate the murder of the archaeology student. She just jumped in without any real connections
Cameron obviously knows her field but she needs to work on development and tying things in.
There was no background or purpose in why Emma Fielding felt the need to investigate the murder of the archaeology student. She just jumped in without any real connections
March 18, 2021
The Hallmark movies are better than the books; that's rare, but true. I found both Emma and her obnoxious friend, Jane, too ridiculous to read more about. I won't be finishing the series.
June 12, 2017
I didn't like this book very much. In reality I don't think much happened. A girl died, bones were stolen, and life went on. I guess that's life, but it seems sort of sad. I didn't see Emma and Jane being friends, even academic ones, they seemed to have little in common other than their work, and I doubt Jane could have hid her bullying nature from Emma even at conferences when she was on her best behavior... I don't with this series... the archeology is a bit interesting, but this one and the first were both really slow to start.
October 15, 2020
I allowed myself to be distracted so easily from this book!
I had the urge to find out whodunnit but I didn’t feel compelled to turn pages. When I did turn pages, they were chock full of misdirection, I later learned.
I’m not so eager to stay with the series ... maybe I’ll find the installments that were adapted into Hallmark movies & read to find what creative liberties might have been taken. 😁 Who knows? I might then feel the need to complete the series ...
I had the urge to find out whodunnit but I didn’t feel compelled to turn pages. When I did turn pages, they were chock full of misdirection, I later learned.
I’m not so eager to stay with the series ... maybe I’ll find the installments that were adapted into Hallmark movies & read to find what creative liberties might have been taken. 😁 Who knows? I might then feel the need to complete the series ...
July 26, 2011
Didn't really get into this one which made for a bit of a slog.
December 31, 2023
would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book
necromancy and magic what couldnt you like about this book
tamar is an unlicensed necromancer and as she goes about her job in an hospice she helps to keep patients alive to say their final goodbyes to their families though it does take a toll on her body but its one she is willing to pay
but as she drives home she witnesses a horrible car accident and gives to much of her blood to the victim and passes out herself...luckily for her a licensed necromancer saves the day and tamar has to undertake training for her license to be a practising necromancer
maddy is to become tamar teacher so that she can get her license, she knows about all the dangers involved and how much that one person can give of themselves when they are trying to help others, she tried to help her brother and it backfired she struggles with her health conditions for years but her investigations and training are helping others
ohhh i have to say this book peaked my interest and i kept reading and i have to say i wasnt disappointed at all... there is just something about necromancy that always draws me in....
necromancy and magic what couldnt you like about this book
tamar is an unlicensed necromancer and as she goes about her job in an hospice she helps to keep patients alive to say their final goodbyes to their families though it does take a toll on her body but its one she is willing to pay
but as she drives home she witnesses a horrible car accident and gives to much of her blood to the victim and passes out herself...luckily for her a licensed necromancer saves the day and tamar has to undertake training for her license to be a practising necromancer
maddy is to become tamar teacher so that she can get her license, she knows about all the dangers involved and how much that one person can give of themselves when they are trying to help others, she tried to help her brother and it backfired she struggles with her health conditions for years but her investigations and training are helping others
ohhh i have to say this book peaked my interest and i kept reading and i have to say i wasnt disappointed at all... there is just something about necromancy that always draws me in....
July 28, 2017
Very different from Site Unseen. Not as much action or suspense. Still very good storyline.
October 18, 2015
I very much enjoyed the first book in this series, so was eager to give the second book a try as well.
And this is yet another really great read.
I like Emma. She has her flaws, and she keeps digging into secrets she should possibly leave untouched, but then we wouldn't get a cool mystery, so I'm only too happy to see Emma soldier on forwards where others would back away.
After the American setting in book one, I very much enjoyed the change to a British setting in this book. Emma is out of her element and a stranger, but still she manages to find people who can help her with her investigation.
Next to the murder mystery there's lots of other things going on. People at odds with each other, secrets, jealousy, and lots more. Slowly things fit together and you get a picture of what is going on. I very much enjoyed reading how things developed and how Emma tried to solve all the mysteries that surround her.
All in all this is a really enjoyable read, and if not for the fact that the next book in this series got lost in the mail after I tracked it down online, I'd be reading it now. But I will hunt down another copy soon, because I want more.
And this is yet another really great read.
I like Emma. She has her flaws, and she keeps digging into secrets she should possibly leave untouched, but then we wouldn't get a cool mystery, so I'm only too happy to see Emma soldier on forwards where others would back away.
After the American setting in book one, I very much enjoyed the change to a British setting in this book. Emma is out of her element and a stranger, but still she manages to find people who can help her with her investigation.
Next to the murder mystery there's lots of other things going on. People at odds with each other, secrets, jealousy, and lots more. Slowly things fit together and you get a picture of what is going on. I very much enjoyed reading how things developed and how Emma tried to solve all the mysteries that surround her.
All in all this is a really enjoyable read, and if not for the fact that the next book in this series got lost in the mail after I tracked it down online, I'd be reading it now. But I will hunt down another copy soon, because I want more.
May 9, 2017
While there are some interesting ideas in here, and narrative avenues that I would have loved to have seen explored further, ultimately I found the characters stereotypical and unsympathetic, and the setting a strange outsider's view of the UK, written for a specific audience that had equal inexperience with the real thing. In the end, unsatisfying.
January 19, 2010
Emma Fielding is in England helping an acquaintance with a dig of an old abbey. One of the students is missing. A fairly modern skeleton is found on the site. There are tensions among her friends and the general community and there's no good coffee for miles. Formulaic and unsatisfying.
August 21, 2023
This is a truly awful book
It is full of anglophobic nonsense
It's hard to work out who the audience is meant to be and was perhsaps written to pander to an American audience who hate the English
Plot is juvenile
Narrative is turgid
Definitely do not recommend
It is full of anglophobic nonsense
It's hard to work out who the audience is meant to be and was perhsaps written to pander to an American audience who hate the English
Plot is juvenile
Narrative is turgid
Definitely do not recommend
April 23, 2024
I thought the main gal, Emma Fielding, was spinning her wheels, no one especially her friends who invited her to stay with them and help with the dig even acted like they wanted her there…I would have gone home if I was her….not a fav book for me…
May 17, 2017
Cute read, mediocre mystery.
July 16, 2024
Not really sure, even as I write this review, what I thought of this book.
There really wasn't too much wrong with it but also not too much to recommend it. The central character is Emma Fielding who is an American archaeologist and a sort of sleuth. Mrs. Fielding is not a female Hercule Poirot, a character who pieces together seemingly disparate pieces of information to resolve a case nor a Miss Marple style mystery solver. Mrs. Fielding seems to chat a lot to people, then chat some more, then some more and then somebody tells her an answer. This is not a result of clever questions, or even an inspirational thought, they just seem to tell her.
The background to the sleuthing is a murder and a skeleton of a much older murder. Two jobs, two ways to create a story-line but most of the book is about the marital issues of her friend and her friends' spouse, either a waste if you like mystery novels or an insight into human relationships if you like soap operas.
In a book I need an emotional response to at least one character; preferably some some of empathy but liking a character will do even disliking a character enough to wish for a giant cheese slicer. But, in this book there was nothing. No character raised anything, the central character is just there, her friends are just there too. Even the 'baddies' are not really anything other than people that I would choose to ignore.
I have read it but I am not in any rush to read the same author again. It is a 3 not a 2 because I didn't ever think that I should use the book as a firelighter.
There really wasn't too much wrong with it but also not too much to recommend it. The central character is Emma Fielding who is an American archaeologist and a sort of sleuth. Mrs. Fielding is not a female Hercule Poirot, a character who pieces together seemingly disparate pieces of information to resolve a case nor a Miss Marple style mystery solver. Mrs. Fielding seems to chat a lot to people, then chat some more, then some more and then somebody tells her an answer. This is not a result of clever questions, or even an inspirational thought, they just seem to tell her.
The background to the sleuthing is a murder and a skeleton of a much older murder. Two jobs, two ways to create a story-line but most of the book is about the marital issues of her friend and her friends' spouse, either a waste if you like mystery novels or an insight into human relationships if you like soap operas.
In a book I need an emotional response to at least one character; preferably some some of empathy but liking a character will do even disliking a character enough to wish for a giant cheese slicer. But, in this book there was nothing. No character raised anything, the central character is just there, her friends are just there too. Even the 'baddies' are not really anything other than people that I would choose to ignore.
I have read it but I am not in any rush to read the same author again. It is a 3 not a 2 because I didn't ever think that I should use the book as a firelighter.
October 4, 2024
"Archaeologist Emma Fielding is beginning to doubt the wisdom of spending her vacation in England helping friends excavate a twelfth-century abbey, especially when they uncover an all-too-modern skeleton in a nearby medieval graveyard. But it's the second discovery -- of a murdered graduate student recently missing from the dig -- that suggests to Emma that Marchester isn't exactly the quiet riverside town it appears to be. There are dark passions and lethal secrets buried here, heinous crimes that shake the conflicted community to its core. And its up to Emma, an outsider far from home, to delve into a past that too many people -- including her friends -- would do anything to hide."
~~back cover
The principal problem with this book is that there wasn't enough archaeology. Emma quickly became embroiled in the undercurrents between Jane and her husband Greg, between Jane, Greg and Andrew the bone specialist, with Greg's Aunty Mads, with the developer George Whiting, and the various difficult, if not impossible, archaeology students ... and the rest of the book was about the mystery leaving the archaeology to be a distant memory.
~~back cover
The principal problem with this book is that there wasn't enough archaeology. Emma quickly became embroiled in the undercurrents between Jane and her husband Greg, between Jane, Greg and Andrew the bone specialist, with Greg's Aunty Mads, with the developer George Whiting, and the various difficult, if not impossible, archaeology students ... and the rest of the book was about the mystery leaving the archaeology to be a distant memory.
November 28, 2023
OMG!!!! This story was full on awesomeness! A unique take on the supernatural genre that has not been done before. It could definitely happen in the real world, if necromancers were a thing. This is my first read for Sandra Barret and I can definitely say it won't be my last. The way she was able to weave the story together for Tamar and Maddy, was full on smoothness. I could not put it down once I started, I was so drawn in. I seriously hope there is more from this world that she has created. Definite 5 star read.
December 1, 2023
eARC provided by NetGalley for my review.
This was a cute romance and thriller with an interesting premise re: necromancy. I think it would probably do well as a YA novel because the writing was a little basic and the twist was almost immediately obvious. Overall, I’m not mad at it but I probably wouldn’t read more if this became a series.
Edit: I think there’s another title associated with this one on goodreads - I’m seeing reviews for another book.
This was a cute romance and thriller with an interesting premise re: necromancy. I think it would probably do well as a YA novel because the writing was a little basic and the twist was almost immediately obvious. Overall, I’m not mad at it but I probably wouldn’t read more if this became a series.
Edit: I think there’s another title associated with this one on goodreads - I’m seeing reviews for another book.
January 9, 2024
I loved all the ideas in this book; there is some cool paranormal stuff. Unfortunately you can work out the whole plot pretty quickly, which wouldn’t really matter if the writing was dialled up from a four to a nine. It’s not badly written, but it would have been so much better if the baddie was more menacing and some of the scenes were scarier. I know the whole point is acceptance in society, but necromancers shouldn’t be this tame.
October 21, 2017
Too many annoying characters. Is second in series, and it does help if you read them as they are written. Lots of people getting on each others nerves. And hunting without horses seems to me to have no redeeming qualities.
July 31, 2021
Twists to the mystery plot were interesting but other than the main character, Emma, the rest were annoying and lacked dimensions. I think this is the second one in the series I've read and I doubt I'll read another.
October 15, 2022
Pretty good read
This was a good book, don’t get me wrong, but I did not like how there were so many unanswered questions at the end. I felt like there should have been more. Well, onto the next book….
This was a good book, don’t get me wrong, but I did not like how there were so many unanswered questions at the end. I felt like there should have been more. Well, onto the next book….
January 16, 2024
A good second in the series, these books have a good mix of realistic archaeology details without being too boring and an interesting mystery. Emma does a bit more internal angsting in this one, which feels a bit drony but otherwise an interesting read.
March 13, 2024
Enjoyable all the way through
This one aI read - didn’t feel like it was following a preset course from the first book. I really enjoyed it. I didn’t read a third of the book and then jumped to the last third to find out “who done it”.
This one aI read - didn’t feel like it was following a preset course from the first book. I really enjoyed it. I didn’t read a third of the book and then jumped to the last third to find out “who done it”.
September 25, 2024
Quite frankly, I was bored reading this novel. I didn't particularly enjoy any of the characters, there were entire sections of pages that didn't drive the plot or expand the characters. I didn't guess who the murderer was, but I also didn't really care.
October 30, 2017
This was a bit of a slog. The archaeology was more interesting than the story and very hard to care about any of the characters. But I did finish it. Eventually.
February 7, 2020
Meh. The main character annoys me and the style is a bit tedious and long-winded. Not sure I'll persevere with the series.
January 10, 2021
A top-rate mystery complete with excellent archaeological information. Well done! Great characterization. Couldn't put it down.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews