Amazon.com (ISBN 0312967039, Mass Market Paperback)

St. Martin's Press nourishes the mystery genre's roots by giving out an annual Malice Domestic Award for what it labels "Best First Traditional Mystery." The hero of its 1997 winner would certainly seem to fit that category: at first glance, Dr. Andrew Fenimore could come straight from a book by Agatha Christie or Dorothy Sayers. A Philadelphia physician who dabbles in criminal investigation, Dr. Fenimore manages to be both sharp and soothing as he digs, literally, into the mystery of why the body of a recently deceased young Native American woman came to be buried, sitting up, in an ancient tribal graveyard. It's only as we become better acquainted with Dr. Fenimore and his colorful band of associates that we see what Robin Hathaway is really up to: she uses the boundaries of the traditional mystery to contain a very modern story about social and cultural change. But of course that's also what Sayers and Christie were up to in their time. Welcome to the club, Robin Hathaway. --Dick Adler