Book Review: Dead Letters by Sheila Lowe

This is such a great series! I have reviewed titles in the Claudia Rose series in the past (including Poison Pen and Outside the Lines, and offered an excerpt from Last Writes), and have always found them to be a delightful way to escape from my life into that of someone infinitely more interesting (and infinitely more prone to find herself in trouble!). The forensic handwriting angle really makes these books unique. I am consistently surprised by the amount of information contained within the loops, swirls, and angles of handwriting, and Lowe does a fantastic job explaining the science without ever losing the thread of her story.

In this installment, Claudia finds herself in Egypt – a place I too have long found mysteriously fascinating. Her niece has gone missing, and the trail is deader than the pharaohs. Or is it? Claudia’s ability to insert herself into investigations, murders, missing persons cases, and historical mysteries with aplomb, humor, and cheeky wit is one of the things I most enjoy about this series. While you do, more than occasionally, have to suspend disbelief at the willingness of other jurisdictions to allow her to so insert herself, the doing so never lessens or affects the impact of the insertion. She’s a marvelous detective in her own right (write?), seeing things from a perspective that is unique and quirky enough to make her deductions and realizations credible and entertaining – particularly when you incorporate her detective husband’s ever-presence at her side.

The story is fast-paced and the history of the tombs – and tomb robbers – is engaging and well presented, offering both entertainment and information about a time and place that were rife with intrigue and drama. The writing is consistently good, offering just the right blend of description and action to keep things moving along in a vividly imagined way.

If you’re not familiar with the series yet, start at the beginning. You could read this as a stand-alone, but you’d be missing a lot of the richness and depth of characterization that are a hallmark of the series for me. Besides, you’ll definitely want to hit each title – they’re great stories and will take you all over the world and back again, with mysteries to boot!

Thanks to the author for my obligation-free review copy.