A Head in Cambodia: A Jenna Murphy Mystery

At the start of Tingley’s intriguing if inconclusive first mystery starring Jenna Murphy, curator of Asian art at the Searles Museum in Marin County, Calif., P.P. Bhattacharya, a trustee and patron of the museum, shows Jenna a stone head that he thinks was stolen from a famous Cambodian sculpture five years earlier. P.P. bought the head at a garage sale of the family of collector Tom Sharpen, who was murdered—decapitated in fact. Jenna learns enough about Sharpen’s transactions with a Bangkok dealer who Sharpen thought cheated him to suspect that the dealer was a man called Grey. Jenna leads a group, which includes P.P., on a tour to Cambodia. During their tour of lovingly described temples, they encounter Grey, wealthy collector Mr. Cha, and an evil man known only as the Ghost. Life-threatening attacks derail Jenna and P.P.’s attempts to learn more about the stone head. Readers should be prepared for a Pollyannaish climax and a lack of clear answers to the assorted mysteries. (Mar.)