Alan doesn’t see how his expertise as an archaeologist would be of any use in the detection of extraterrestrial matter, but he does agree to troll said portion of the river with a magnetometer which will detect any appreciable amount of metal in the area. Alan is not sure whether Ms. Crawford really saw anything, so he is somewhat surprised when his magnetometer does detect a mass of metal astonishingly close to where the elderly librarian said she had seen the foreign object.

Having a specific target area, the sheriff’s department agrees to have a diver search the area. Because the water is so murky, the diver is unable to ascertain just what the metal object is other than that it is quite large. Dragging the river reveals a submerged car, containing a man’s body. The body is readily identified as Jacko Reilly, a fellow of dubious reputation, who lived in Lordsport.

The medical examiner has little difficulty determining that Jacko died from a stab wound, and was dead or nearly so, when his car entered the river. Graham’s tenuous connection to the case becomes a little more solid when the contents of Jacko’s pockets reveal part of a strange coin. Graham is able to identify the coin as a quarter of a Spanish peso, legitimate currency in the United States until the late 1800’s. Naturally, Graham is drawn into the hunt for the killer of the murdered man as well as the curious explanation for his possession of such a rare coin.

In Past Dying, Malcolm Shuman presents what initially appears to be a straightforward plot. However, it quickly evolves into something a lot more complex and convoluted. The knife used in the murder is found likely to be a Bowie knife. The story segues into a discussion of Jim Bowie’s life and whether or not he was the hero he is often portrayed to be. This material has nothing to do with the plot and significantly slows down the pace of the action. It also doesn’t really seem relevant to hero Graham’s area of expertise to the point where one wonders why Graham is really involved in the situation at all.

Although all of the incidents which occur in Alan Graham’s fourth appearance are technically possible, there are numerous instances in which coincidence plays an altogether too important role. For instance, Alan decides it would be enlightening if he spoke with Jacko’s widow. He doesn’t know where she lives, but he remembers her maiden name (why?), and that her father ran a gas station. He quickly locates a phone book, which reveals that there is only one person with that last name (lucky him!) and, hence, the address. He’s sure the widow will have returned to live with her parents (again, why?). Either there are a number of coincidences or Mr. Graham is one very lucky fellow.

In an effort to create suspense or drama, Mr. Shuman’s prose often borders on the melodramatic. In one scene, our hero is concerned about the discovery of Jacko’s body. As he sleeps he dreams, thinking of the murder weapon as the legendary Jim Bowie’s knife, whose blade was allegedly made from a meteorite. He confusedly thinks of a movie he’s seen where the hero uses such a knife. Graham, in his dream, sees the knife unsheathed, dropped into the river, and grabbed by the skeletal hand of Jacko Reilly. Shocking, or melodramatic?

Fans of Shuman’s Alan Graham series will probably be amused by his latest outing, but readers new to the series would do better to start the series by reading one of the previous titles. They have Graham doing what he is trained to do, and seem much more realistic. To its credit, as a stand alone, Past Dying does not demand that the reader be familiar with the earlier books, but there is little legitimate reason for Graham to be a character in this book at all.

--Andy Plonka