UNEASY RELATIONS
By: Aaron Elkins
New York, Berkley Publishing Group
July 2008 (hc)
I inevitably wait with great anticipation the
publication of a new Gideon Oliver mystery, and Uneasy Relations, the
15th in the series, fulfilled all my expectations. Once again
Aaron Elkins has conceived a satisfying puzzler of a plot, has introduced an
array of interesting—and sometimes slightly—bizarre possible suspects, and
has provided a suitably exotic locale—this time the island of Gibraltar—for
Gideon to ply his talents as the intrepid “skeleton detective.” For while
plots change, and exotic locations vary with each new novel, it is the
delightful character that is Gideon Oliver that provides the cement for this
great series. Gideon is simultaneously brilliant and scatterbrained; he can
be incredibly pedantic and still self-effacing; he can be a daring action
hero one moment and a klutz the next. Aaron Elkins has simply created a
wonderful protagonist.
On numerous occasions Aaron Elkins has used the world
of academia as a backdrop for his Gideon Oliver mysteries, often with tongue
firmly in cheek. In this latest entry Gideon is preparing to present a
paper at the meeting of the International Paleoanthropological Society. To
his chagrin he finds a report in the popular press that he will present
evidence of a scientific hoax that will eclipse the infamous Piltdown
controversy. His comment was meant to be a quip that the dullard journalist
who quoted him took quite literally. Gideon realizes he will face the
good-natured ribbing of his peers for a long time to come—academics can be
unforgiving when a colleague commits a professional faux pas!
Before the actual conference, a small group of
paleoanthropologists, including Gideon, gather to pay homage to a living
legend in their midst—Ivan Gunderson, the grand old man of early man
archaeology. His greatest contribution to the field had taken place a few
years earlier on Gibraltar with the discovery of the “First Family”—the
burial of an early homo sapien woman embracing a young boy—“Gibraltar
Boy”-- presumably her son, who showed distinctive Neanderthal traits. This
earthshaking discovery seemed to tip the scales in the long-running debate
among paleoanthropologists whether Homo sapiens and Neanderthals could and
did interbreed (the “admixture” theory) or remained completely separate
until the Neanderthals simply died out. With Gunderson’s discovery, the
admixture theory was now ascendant. Ivan Gunderson’s celebrants were those
anthropologists who had actually excavated the “First Family” under his
guidance, or, as in Gideon’s case, had conducted the post-excavation
analysis of the skeletal remains.
Amidst all this bon homie, darker forces seem to
be at work as Gideon almost plunges to his death from the famed Rock of
Gibraltar—he’s convinced he was nudged from the precipice but has no
proof—and later is almost electrocuted in a suspicious “accident.” Then
there are murmurings among the band of colleagues that one of their group—a
young graduate student at the time of the First Family excavation—had died
under mysterious circumstances in the collapse of Europa Point Cave, the
First Family burial site two years after the excavation was completed. No
one seemed to know what she was doing there or even why she was there. Then
another tragic “accident” occurs as Ivan Gunderson dies shortly after the
testimonial in a fire started apparently from the embers of his ever-present
pipe. Gideon, ever mindful of his old mentor—Abe Goldstein—and his Law of
Interconnected Monkey Business, begins to suspect that someone is trying to
kill off all those involved in the First Family excavation.
How Gideon literally puts together the pieces of this
anthropological puzzle to solve the mystery of not only who is trying to
kill a group of otherwise harmless anthropologists, but more importantly
why makes for a fascinating read. Along with a wonderfully convoluted
plot, Aaron Elkins, through his clever Skeleton Detective, also exposes the
reader to the very latest in forensic anthropology theory and practice. But
now, unfortunately, we must wait at least a year for the next Gideon
Oliver mystery! An enthusiastic three trowels for Uneasy Relations.
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