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by: Lyn Hamilton  Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: Mass Market PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 813.54 EAN: 9780425177754 ISBN: 0425177750 Label: Berkley Manufacturer: Berkley Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 304 Publication Date: December 01, 2000 Publisher: Berkley Release Date: December 12, 2000 Studio: Berkley Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: After antiquing sojourns in the Yucatán (The Xibalba Murders), Malta (The Maltese Goddess), and Peru (The Moche Warrior), Toronto shopkeeper Lara McClintoch finds herself in County Kerry, Ireland. Lara, who has a good eye for antiques and an excellent eye for murder, is serving as moral support for her friend and employee Alex Stewart, who must attend the reading of an old friend's will. Eamon Byrne, formidable in life and maddeningly evasive in death, has decided to make the division of his estate an occasion for familial cooperation and goodwill. Well-versed in Irish mythology, Byrne leaves each person gathered at the reading a sealed clue to a mysterious treasure, a posthumous plot to force his family to mend the rifts between them. Too bad his querulous offspring aren't interested--but Lara is, particularly after learning that the clues are lines from the "Song of Amairgen," an ancient Celtic poem. As she, Alex, Rob Luczka (a Mountie along for the ride), and Rob's daughter Jennifer puzzle through the clues, the game turns lethal when members of the Byrne household are found dead. Hamilton's premise is an intriguing one; the process of deciphering--metaphorically if not literally--ancient texts should challenge the reader and allow the author to weave artfully between past and present. But the novel is crippled by what seems to be an acute lack of interest on Hamilton's part: she makes no effort to justify Lara's deductions, which often seem to be the result of divine intervention, and doesn't address at least half of the clues, merely assuring the reader that Lara and her cronies have solved them. Hamilton's repetition also handicaps her text; in a novel with so little narrative complexity, pausing to remind the reader of past plot developments is at best unnecessary and at worst infuriating. Lyn Hamilton's first novel, The Xibalba Murders, was nominated by the Crime Writers of Canada Association for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel; one hopes that Hamilton's next archaeological outing will better fulfill the potential implicit in that nomination. The Celtic Riddle, unfortunately, is probably not worth solving. Product Description: An ancient Celtic poem holds the key to a mysterious treasure in the fourth installment in Lyn Hamilton's highly acclaimed Archaeological Mystery series-starring antique dealer and sleuth Lara McClintoch. Average Rating:
 Rating: - 3 1/2, but not 4This is the first book that I've read by this author, and I kind of enjoyed it. Unfortunately, the premise behind the story is much better than what actually occurs. I love the idea of trying to solve a riddle mystery, and by making the riddles Celtic (or more particularly Irish based on old Irish legends) it was something I just had to read. I was also intrigued by the antique element in the book. But I found that the prose was a little hard slogging, and I just didn't connect with the main ... Read More Rating:  - Poorly Plotted and Contrived CluesMy 12yo daughter and I were in the library looking for books and I chose this one for her as the protagonist is a female anthropologist (as is my daughter's mother) and I saw it was part of a series which I took to be a good sign for the quality of the writing. Boy, was I wrong! My daughter is smarter than me as she couldn't stomach even the first few pages. I plowed through most of the book, hoping it would improve, until finally I just skimmed the back pages to find out what the writer had chosen ... Read More Rating:  - Best so farHaving read the previous books in this series, I was moderately excited for this one. I was more than pleasantly surprised. The writing has improved quite a bit. The whodoneit not that surprising, but that was ok. I loved the addition, here, of some more light hearted humor. I laughed out loud on a number of occasions. Ms. Hamilton is on the right track...I can't wait to read the next book. Rating: - Sort of interesting but unbelievableThis book was kind of interesting but had all sorts of unbelievable stuff in it. Like all these people in this little town in Ireland are getting murdered, one right after the other, and no one in town or the family is in the least bit upset or worried about it. They just merrily go on about their lives as if nothing unusual was going on and they never even mention it or seem to notice, in fact. And the whole reason that this woman and her friends are there in the first place for so long, ... Read More Rating: - You Just Never KnowTHE CELTIC RIDDLE is the fourth installment in Hamilton's Lara McClintoch series. The first one was passable, but nothing to get excited about. I found the second one disappointing and decided, at that point, to give up on Hamilton. Relenting after a couple of years, I gave the third one a shot. Lo and behold, I liked it. Not great, you understand, but pretty good. I began thinking that Hamilton had found her muse. Now we have THE CELTIC RIDDLE (and several more, actually, but I'm taking them ... Read More 
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