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FIELDS OF STONES
By: Marilyn Dungan
Arcane Books, Paris, Kentucky
2001 (pb)
Field of Stones is the third entry in the Laney McVey mystery
series, and as near as I can tell, is the only one with an archaeology
motif. Author Dungan has done some background research on the subject of
field archaeology and writes quite convincingly about it. Laney McVey, the
series protagonist, is the inheritor/owner of Stoney Creek Bed &
Breakfast and a 250-acre horse farm near Bluegrass, Kentucky, and the
story opens as a crew of archaeologists from Parker Webb University in
Louisiana move in to conduct a field school excavation. While the object
of the dig is a Late Woodland site, the crew soon makes two unanticipated
discoveries—the 200-year-old burial of a white man, probably an 18th
Century surveyor given some artifacts found in situ, who may or may
not have met a violent death and the tiny body of a relatively recent
newborn, wrapped in gunny sacking, and apparently bludgeoned to death.
On page 216, Char Hamilton, Laney’s best friend, observes, "My
God…you make it all sound like a soap opera…" and in many ways
that does sum up this book. In addition to the efforts of two of the young
archaeologists who are trying to trace down the identity of the
two-centuries-old burial and Laney trying to discover the identity of the
newborn murder victim, there are countless side stories involving Laney’s
niece Cilla, who is involved in an abusive romantic relationship; Laney’s
on-again, off-again love affair with large animal veterinarian Graham
Prescott; and Char’s struggle to maintain her relationship with her
Scottish lover, Malcolm, who is recovering from an injury and is being
relentlessly pursued by the vixenish live-in caregiver, Ivy Hart. All of
these subtexts do fit into the overall plot, however contrived that plot
may be at times. There is also a major mystery hanging over the paternity
of one of the main characters, a youthful student archaeologist named Toby
Hart, son of the aforementioned Ivy. Toby, who falls in love with Laney’s
battered niece Cilla, has never known the identity of his father. Was it
the wealthy previous owner of Stoney Creek Farm, Paul Carson? Or was it
the long-suffering friend and financial advisor to Carson, Jerome Whalen—who
turns up murdered late in the story? Or was it perhaps even the handsome
and rakish archaeologist Dr. Bucky Gage, who is directing the field school
at Stoney Creek Farm?
All in all, this is a fairly compelling mystery, and as stated earlier,
the archaeology subplot is handled quite well. If there is one
disconcerting element to the archaeology, it is that Bucky Gage, who may
be of questionable virtue but is nevertheless an accomplished
archaeologist, allows his students to refer to the burial of the 18th
Century surveyor as "Bones." I don’t think any modern
archaeologist would allow that kind of disrespect be shown to the remains
of a human being.
Field of Stones gets two trowels.
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