Earth Colors, by Sarah Andrews

The ninth in the Em Hansen series of forensic geology thrillers has our heroine embroiled in a deadly drama centering on mineral pigments, beguiling gray-eyed strangers, stolen art and the need to resume her interrupted life.

Summary

Title: Earth Colors
Author: Sarah Andrews
Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur
ISBN: 0312301979

Pro:

• Genre fiction done with flair
• Strong inner as well as outer action
• Good characters and locales

Con:

• Explication is sometimes dry
• The occasional mouthpiece character
• No cross sections (just kidding!)

Description:

• Gentle, contemplative mystery with the gore offstage
• Plenty of side trips into geologic and artistic history
• Series protagonist shows new character facets (so does the author)

Book Review

Em Hansen is in a funk, worried about an absent boyfriend, feeling like an unappreciated nanny to her widowed best friend Faye, unable to finish her master's, creeping toward forty, scraping by. On a trip to Wyoming to help Faye see a would-be client, Em takes an instant dislike to the unsettling Tert Krehbeil, a man with piercing gray eyes and a winning way with Faye's baby. He commissions Em to test and certify a family painting, an uncataloged Remington, as a forgery. Em gets an idea for a master's project based on the minerals of artists' pigments.

The trail leads Em to the east coast, so different from her native west, and into the doings of the dysfunctional Krehbeil family. Why is the matriarch so sick? Who stands to gain from her demise? Why has Tert warned Em away from the family's country estate? And how can Em pry her friend Faye from his creepy presence?

On the way to the courtroom climax and uplifting denouement, author Sarah Andrews takes us through the FBI forensics lab, out to the field in old Pennsylvania and through musings on art history, the lore of pigments and the fates of family homesteads. She also introduces a Mutt-and-Jeff pair of state geologists, a federal agent with an unexpected core, an ex with a two-edged compassion and a cute new guy down the block. We also learn such niceties as the uses of a stout length of rebar in farm country and the need for a full-nudity inspection after a day's fieldwork.

Em Hansen is a typical geologist: observant, resourceful, curious and energetic. These same qualities suit her well as a detective, too, which a century after Sherlock Holmes should not surprise anyone. Fortunately for us she's an amateur, so "Earth Colors" is no lab-and-procedures vehicle but rather a look at the side of forensic geology that touches real life and everyday people. It's also a deft portrait of a candid, intelligent woman summoning the will to take her life back in hand.