Trepanation Books

This is the second book in a series by Kathleen Hills featuring John McIntire as the "detective." Retired from military intelligence, John has returned to the northern Michigan (shores of Lake Superior) area in which he was raised, bringing with him his English wife Leonie. John is shanghaied into accepting the position of Constable in this poor rural area.

This mystery involves a wealthy young man from the East Coast who is murdered. The boy is vacationing in an exclusive enclave and his mother is bent on discovering which of the locals has done this. John is strongarmed into helping with the investigation because the county sheriff is short a deputy and the death occurred in his territory.

The writing in this book is outstanding, and unlike an earlier book, the plotting is tight and the story moves right along. An interesting array of characters, both locals and "outsiders," create an interesting list of suspects. Hills keeps you stumped to the very end (and I read a LOT of mysteries) and yet it all makes sense. The 1950s setting and the sparsely populated North Woods/shores of Superior setting add to the charm.

I look forward to reading the next book in the series, which is already in print.

very poorly edited and somewhat repetitive, this is the only reasonably credible source on trepanation you'll find as of early october 2003. if you're looking for treatment of the psychedlic perspective on self-trepanative enlightenment, look elsewhere; in four hundred pages, this pays roughly one paragraph's attention to modern elective trepanation, not that i personally think it's a very wise idea, anyhow. the first section of the book does give a very interesting account of the anthropological history of the modern interest in trephination, and this is without doubt the most comprehensive collection of data on the subject to date. however, especially towards the later essays, take it with a grain of salt - it's not consistently good science.