Shaber's brisk fifth Simon Shaw cozy (after 2004's The Bug Funeral
) obliges the Raleigh, N.C., history professor to apply his forensic skills to the murder of a close friend and colleague. David Morgan, a highly regarded archeologist, is found bludgeoned to death, his notes and collection of ancient Native American artifacts missing. Morgan had sat on a committee formed to decide the fate of a 14,000-year-old Paleo-Indian skeleton: should the remains be preserved in a museum for all to study or reverently interred in Indian burial grounds? The controversy may have provided a motive for the murder. Suspects include Morgan's sister, his gorgeous assistant and various colleagues, none with alibis. Simon proves his resourcefulness after a plane crash strands him in the wilderness of North Carolina's Nantahala National Forrest. Amorous interludes lend some spice. (Mar.)