In a message dated 10/8/2003 9:07:41 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< Rattle His Bones: A Daisy Dalrymple Mystery
 by Carola Dunn
 Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.73 x 7.06 x
 4.18
 Publisher: Kensington Pub Corp (Mass Market); (March 2003)
 ISBN: 0758201680 >>

This reminds me of Richard Timothy Conroy's "Mr. Smithson's Bones," in which
portions of James Smithson are discovered in a Smithsonian physical
anthropology lab.  The only problem is that the remains are supposed to be housed in
Smithson's tomb in the Castle.  Upon inspection of the tomb, the wrong body is
found there.  Other Smithsonian novels by Conroy are "The India Exhibition" and
"Old Ways in the New World" (St Martin's Press, US).  I've read only the first
of the three, but a web site describes them: "Murder, mystery and
labyrinthine goings-on in a series of engaging thrillers set in the Smithsonian
Institution."  "Mr. Smithson's Bones" is notable for its depiction of the kind of
museum politics which can lead to murder.

Then of course there's Margaret Truman's "Murder in the Smithsonian" (New
York: Fawcett Crest, 1983).  A murder occurs at a reception in the National
Museum of American History near the Foucault pendulum, and the murderer escapes by
posing as a mannequin in the First Ladies' Hall.  I am particularly fond of
the one real-life character Truman places in this chapter, former NMAH director
Roger Kennedy.  She has him announcing his resignation just when a new U.S.
vice-president who is very pro-Smithsonian becomes head of the Smithsonian board
of regents, and Kennedy remarks, "My timing, as usual, is terrible."  This
must have represented a private joke between Kennedy and Ms. Truman!  Well, the
Foucault pendulum is now gone, which is itself something of a mystery.  By an
odd coincidence, I attended a reception at the museum this very evening, and
Roger Kennedy suddenly materialized beside me, right where the pendulum once
swung!  I've always meant to ask him about the Truman quote, but he disappeared
before I could inquire.

That, of course, reminds me of Umberto Eco's great, complex thriller,
"Foucault's Pendulum," in which the narrator hides out at night in a Paris technology
museum and witnesses a bizarre ritual.  I highly recommend this literate,
multi-layered book, which is about conspiracy theories running amok and causing
murder and mayhem.  I never quite figured out Eco's implicit reference to the
other Foucault--Michel.

Well, if I see Roger Kennedy again or ever meet Eco, I have some questions.

David Haberstich

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