Donovan attends the preview banquet. Paolo Lucca, the man responsible for amassing most of the artifacts on display, is an archaeologist of sorts, disliked by many dedicated to the profession. He has bought many of these valuable objects from poor countries that are willing to part with their treasures for hard currency.

Lucca has invited all those people he has offended in his dealings to the banquet with the promise that he will make it worth their effort. After all are assembled at the exhibit, Lucca leads his special contingent behind the curtain to preview the show. Lucca’s beautiful young wife, Katy, is left with Donovan and the other guests to await the more formal opening.

Suddenly a cry is heard followed shortly after by running footsteps. The crowd is quieted by an unearthly scream, as television personality, Morty Berman staggers from behind the curtain clutching an antique dagger, announcing that Lucca is dead. Donovan is presented with a variation of a locked room murder in solving the murder of Paolo Lucca.

Murder at the Museum of Natural History is both a good book and a not so good book. To its credit, there are many tidbits of information regarding ancient civilizations, some discussion of archaeological methods, and a capsule history of New York’s Museum of Natural History. These additions to the reader’s fund of knowledge have, however, only a tangential relation to the murder and its solution. The author also does an excellent job of developing the characters of his main players, Bill Donovan and Katy Lucca. Since they both have complex personalities, this is no mean feat.

The unfortunate part of the book is the plot itself. It is completely straightforward and, as is the case in locked room mysteries, the number of suspects severely restricted. The manner in which Mr. Jahn has elected to set the stage and describe the action gives the reader enough information early in the story to successfully solve the mystery. Thus, one is denied the challenge of assembling clues bit by bit to eventually finger the murderer.

There is also a decided lack of red herrings. Although the author does manage to introduce a slight twist to the correct solution, the dedicated mystery buff should have little trouble solving this one.

Although this edition of Murder in the Museum of Natural History was published in January 2000, the original publication date is 1994. Fans of Michael Jahn should be cautious since they may have already read this book in a previous edition. The rapid advances in technology made this book sometimes interesting reading. Just six years ago, cellular phone were something of a novelty, but now are quite commonplace. There are other little indications that the setting is not exactly the present.

Readers interested in acquiring bits of obscure knowledge or to whom character development is entertaining will find Murder at the Museum of Natural History a pleasant diversion. Those folks for whom plot is an essential ingredient, and thrive on being presented with a complex one, may not miss much by passing this one by.

--Andy Plonka