Review Rating
With the October 2004 review, we began rating the books on the basis of one to four trowels;
one trowel= don’t bother, to four trowels= run right out to your local book store and buy the hard cover!
Lyn Hamilton by Bill Gresens
Reviewed on: March 1, 2010
Lyn Hamilton (August 4, 1944—September 10, 2009)
I was saddened to learn recently that one of my favorite authors had passed away within the past few months. Lyn Hamilton was a talented, witty writer who created a sympathetic and believable heroine—antiques and antiquities dealer, Lara McClintoch—and then promptly sent her off on adventures and puzzling mysteries in the some of the world’s most intriguing locations: among them, the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland, Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in the South Pacific, Bangkok, Tunisia. There were eleven novels in the Lara McClintoch series and the reader could always anticipate a complex and satisfying plot, quirky characters, and an artist’s eye in describing the sights, smells and local color of Lara’s many exotic destinations. She, in fact, led a number of archaeology tours to some of the very locations her novels took place.
It was disappointing to learn that she was retiring from writing after her 2007 novel, The Chinese Alchemist, but it was apparently because her struggle with cancer was taking its toll, and this talented young woman (she had just turned 65) died in September, 2009. Her friends heralded her as “smart, funny, creative, strong, loyal and brave,” and I believe she was all of those and probably much more.
Her books are still in print in paperback, and available in hardcover from Amazon.com and other book dealers. I urge those who love high quality archaeological mysteries to read her works. There will be no more Lara McClintoch novels, but the eleven we have are gems.
Click on the titles below for my reviews of some of her books.
The African Quest: An Archaeology Mystery (Reviewed March 2001)
The Celtic Riddle (Reviewed July 2001)
The Magyar Venus (Reviewed June 2004)
The Moai Murders (Reviewed September 2005)
The Orkney Scroll (Reviewed October 2006)
