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Murder at the Museum of Natural History book cover
Murder at the Museum of Natural History
1994
First Published
3.02
Average Rating
275
Number of Pages

Part of Series

Murder at the Museum of Natural History marks the return of Lieutenant William Donovan to the mystery arena. In his fourth adventure, Donovan continues his trademark pursuit of killers who use exotic weapons to shed blood on the floors of Big Apple landmarks. This time he tracks a murderer who steals a priceless one-thousand-year-old dagger - a gift Marco Polo was carrying to Kublai Khan from the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII - and strikes at the gala opening celebration of a world-famous archaeological exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. In the course of several very busy days and nights, Donovan sorts clues and interrogates suspects while keeping company with the victim's movie star wife. The stunning and infamous Katy Lucca has become, overnight, the world's wealthiest, most beautiful, and, clearly, hottest-blooded widow. Several questions loom: Who killed playboy billionaire and archaeologist Paolo Lucca? Is Katy involved in her husband's death? How will Donovan handle some very shady, and extremely dangerous, characters - provincial terrorists and Russian mafiosi - who fled to New York from the ashes of the old Soviet Union? The Treasure of the Silk Road exhibit, an incredible display of artifacts from the old Silk Road that ran from Cathay to the West, has brought all of these characters together. Now Donovan must search through layers of deception and the halls of the American Museum of Natural History to uncover a brutal murderer.
Avg Rating
3.02
Number of Ratings
42
5 STARS
5%
4 STARS
21%
3 STARS
50%
2 STARS
19%
1 STARS
5%
goodreads

Author

Michael Jahn
Michael Jahn
Author · 10 books

I'm a reporter, photographer, and professional novelist. A newspaperman's son, I began my daily newspaper career at The New York Times, where I was hired in 1968 to cover the music beat (folk, blues, and rock), making me the first full-time rock journalist for major media. That made me well-enough known (or notorious, maybe) so that a few years on I switched to writing fiction, mostly detective novels, and have published 50 books, one of which won the prestigious Edgar Award. In reviewing "Night Rituals" (1982), the New Yorker wrote that "Jahn writes with a flourish that is entirely his own." And they didn't say "and he can keep it too" so I've been using that quote ever since. Right now (2012) I'm publishing Kindle editions of my critically acclaimed Bill Donovan Mysteries, which I published from 1982 to 2008. Up so far: "Murder in Coney Island," "Murder in Central Park," "Murder on Theatre Row," "Murder on the Waterfront," and "Murder at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine" (originally published as "City of God"). My Edgar winner, "The Quark Maneuver," also is up in Kindle. I've begun writing a memoir, not so much of me but of my very unusual ancestors, who had this Forest Gumpian ability to find themselves standing next to fame or infamy. An ancestor on the Spanish side, a sailor, went to Japan with Perry, fought in the Civil War under Farragut (and, I like to think, was the man the Admiral was thinking about when he hollered "Damn the torpedoes ... full speed ahead!"), and later helped rescue a man-eating meteorologist who was frozen in the Arctic ice. My newspaperman dad survived a car chase with Dutch Schultz and drank bourbon on a transcontinental train with Harry Truman. I'll write about all this stuff. Wouldn't you? The working title is "Told to Me by a Sailor who Died (I'll Never Know if the Bastard Lied)." I live in New York City.

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