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Site Unseen    by Dana Cameron Amazon.com order for
Site Unseen
by Dana Cameron
Order:  USA  Can
Avon, 2002
Paperback

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* *   Reviewed by G. Hall

Site Unseen is the first book by professional archaeologist Dana Cameron. Anyone interested in archaeology or early US history will like this novel. It features the young and untenured Emma Fielding, who hopes to uncover a career-making discovery at a possible pre-Jamestown settlement in Maine. Emma is a feisty young woman with a real mix of likeable and unlikeable traits. Reading about her struggle as a young female in academia is very interesting.

Cameron wisely allows the reader to enjoy learning about the process of field archaeology before the first body appears to clutter up the excavation. Emma's team has been digging on the property of her beloved adopted aunt Pauline Westlake. She is heartbroken when Pauline dies in a fire at her beautiful old home adjacent to the site. Although Pauline's death is officially called an accident, Emma suspects foul play from the first, specifically by a local ne'er do well and pothunter/treasure-hunter.

Emma herself soon is under suspicion when Pauline's furious sister learns that Pauline's will endows a professor's chair at Emma's college to be occupied by Emma. Since the investigative and problem-solving skills of an archaeologist and a detective are not that different, Emma is soon looking into Pauline's death. Of course, along the way she antagonizes various people (including some of the bad guys) and soon is in great jeopardy.

One of the best things about reading a first book by an author is seeing how they approach mystery writing and then, if the book is well-done, anticipating the next. Cameron's second mystery will be set in England, and we hope it will be as enjoyable as this one.

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