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THE MERIWETHER MURDER
By: Malcolm Shuman
Avon Books: New York
November 1998 (PB)
Several years ago I reviewed the first of Malcolm
Shuman’s Alan Graham mysteries, Burial Ground, and the final entry,
The Last Mayan. I was very sorry to see the series grind to a halt
due to the vagaries of the publishing world, but I’ve decided to review yet
another of these little gems in the hopes that a reader or two might be
tempted to log on to Amazon.com and pick one up for a delightful read.
Alan Graham is the low-key unassuming proprietor of an
archaeological contract firm headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. One
of the delights of Malcolm Shuman’s description of Alan and his chosen
career is the faithful portrayal of the life and times of a contract
archaeologist—the treadmill existence of seeking and bidding on new
contracts while conducting present projects while completing reports
on completed surveys. Add to this a shovel crew drawn from some of the
further edges of society and the demanding oversight of the aptly named
Corps of Engineers contract officer, Bertha Bomberg (aka La Bombast)
and you almost have the material for a TV sit-com. Fortunately for the
reader, Alan Graham also has the tendency to attract conmen, looters,
killers and other assorted scalawags to his innocent CRM projects!
The Meriwether Murder presents the most
beguiling of the Alan Graham mysteries and leans heavily on one of American
history murkiest episodes—the death of explorer Meriwether Lewis of Lewis
and Clark fame. Alan’s firm has been hired by the Corps to survey a stretch
of Mississippi River levee on the antebellum Desiree plantation. Alan’s
attention is drawn to a lone gravestone simply marked, “Louis, died July 3,
1863.” While seeking background historical documentation on Desiree for his
survey report, Alan and his historical archaeologist colleague/lady friend
(he wishes!) Pepper Courtney, are introduced to the owner of Desiree, the
very elderly and nursing home-bound, Ouida Fabre. She has in her possession
journals from the 19th Century that include interesting tidbits
of information about the mysterious Louis, who was fished out of the river
in 1811. Badly hurt and near death, he was nursed back to health and lived
out the remainder of his days as a handy man, or “mechanic” at Desiree—but
with apparently no memory of anything prior to his rescue. Further research
brings to light additional historical documents that point to an incredible
possibility: that the mysterious “Louis” may have been, in fact, Meriwether
Lewis! The only real problem with that possibility is the generally
accepted historical fact that Meriwether Lewis died by his own hand in 1809
near Chickasaw Bluffs (now Memphis), Tennessee, as he raced to Washington,
DC and President Thomas Jefferson, in an attempt to clear his name of
scandal A National Park Service monument marks his burial there.
Modern day mayhem accompaniers the unraveling of this
nearly 200 year old mystery as the caretaker at Desiree dies in a mysterious
fire, Alan’s home is ransacked and an inquisitive reporter, who has been
investigating the tie-in between the caretaker’s death and the mystery
burial at Desiree, is brutally murdered. As Alan and Pepper try to puzzle
out the strands that connect these occurrences separated by almost two
centuries, Alan finds himself not only the number one suspect by the local
police but also the number one target of the modern day killer.
This is a very entertaining mystery, with good, strong
characterization, and the imaginative use of an historical event that is
still subject to speculation and revision. Malcolm Shuman proposes a most
interesting possibility concerning the death of a true American hero,
Meriwether Lewis.
Three trowels.
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