F
ormer archeologist Baron has slipped off form a bit in her third novel, a somewhat confusing mystery about the contemporary trade in stolen antiquities. Tamar Saticoy, a professor of archeology, discovers a fine Roman floor mosaic on one of the last days of an excavation in Turkey. When she returns the next day with an official from the Department of Antiquities, the mosaic has been removed and a student assistant is dead. Saticoy sets off for Switzerland in hopes that the mosaic will show up on the black market. Meanwhile, her co-excavator, Andrew Chatham, is delayed in Bulgaria, hoping to acquire a newly discovered cache of Thracian gold jewelry. Although Tamar and Chatham are colleagues, they hardly interact, making their stories appear unrelated. Baron (The Torch of Tangiers
) does bring them together in the final chapters, but by then, readers may have lost interest. On the plus side, Baron supplies plentiful information about the archeology of ancient Rome. (July)
