Detective Sergeant Wesley Peterson, here in his third outing in this series, is a very tactful young black male trying to prevent his older colleague from making wrong assumptions. Wesley’s archeology background comes in handy when he runs into a friend who is working a dig on a suspect’s estate. What at first seems to be merely an interesting development there ends up becoming a key part of the dead woman’s past. The best part of the book involves the secondary characters, who all are given realistic give-and-take dialogue and engaging personalities.

Although the book was easy to read, a few things kept me from pursuing the first two books in this series. The author continually makes the point that Wesley is black and subject to constant discrimination, however it seemed a little outdated the way she presents it. The way Wesley interacts with his wife, who is portrayed as a wimpy, confused woman, is sometimes a bit distasteful. The choice the author makes to carry her theme not twice, but three times, was a little overboard. However, the good dialogue and description and the really good pacing of the book, carried the day.

One more note - this is an interesting hybrid as far as categories go. With two policemen you would assume this is a police procedure. It just didn’t seem to be one. Finally, I decided it is a British cozy that substitutes police for the usual amateur detectives. It is interesting to conjecture what An Unhallowed Grave would have become had a couple of amateurs, such as the archeologists, been substituted for the police.

--Diane Gotfryd