Deadly Design - Marion Moore Hills

Title: Deadly Design: A Deadly Past Mystery
Author: Marion Moore Hills
Genre: Suspense
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 329 pages
Date read: October, 2009

In this sequel to Deadly Will, single-mother Millie Kirchner leaves her home for the summer when she gets the chance to volunteer at an archaeological dig by Poplar Forest, Thomas Jefferson's secret retreat. As a history buff with special interest in the Founding Fathers, this is the perfect chance for Millie and too good an opportunity to give up.

But what starts out as the perfect summer soon turns sinister. Shortly before Millie's arrival, an intern at the neighbouring archaeological site, Highgrove, is found murdered, one of Millie's housemates is being stalked by an obsessive ex, and Millie herself has reason to believe that all is not as it appears to be at Highgrove. But what's the motive? And who's to suspect when everybody acts suspicious?

Deadly Design is a clever mix of history and suspense. As a non-American, I don't know much about American history, and appreciated this insight into the life and time of Thomas Jefferson. However, I did feel that the suspense part of the story lacked some polishing. Everybody seemed to have a motive and/or a secret to keep, and Millie was rather too obvious a wanna-be detective in her musings as she mentally evaluated each person's motivation.

Still, the history/suspense mix was well balanced and the mix worked well. The plot was interesting enough to keep me well entertained, and I finished the book in just a couple of days, undeterred by the fact that I hadn't read the first book in the series.