In No Certain Rest, Jim Lehrer tells a riveting story of mistaken identity and murder that begins to come together one detail at a time, while the reader tries to race ahead of the facts to solve the murder. As the reader sees inside the mind of Dr. Don Spaniel, he echoes the same questions plaguing the archeologist, such as: ôIf youÆre not T.L. Flintson of the Twenty-third Massachusetts, then who in the hell are you, sir?ö and ôBut how did his ID disk end up in the grave of another man who died somewhere else five months later?ö (Lehrer 57). In allowing the story to unfold via SpanielÆs thoughts, Lehrer entices the reader forward by prompting him to ask himself the same questions and try to figure out the answers on his own. This literary device is extremely effective, since it leads the reader along the path of increasing intrigue, contemplating the questions that are central to the suspense of the mystery. One step at a time, the facts fall into place as Spaniel uncovers new evidence and makes mental associations that begin to fill in the gaps. At one point, he explains this modus operandi to Colonel Doleman:
IÆm from the eliminator school of archeology, colonelàWe go at it one possibility at a time, starting with the best one. Eliminate it before moving on to possibility number twoàand so on (Lehrer 88).
The story is reminiscent of Jeffery DeaverÆs The Bone Collector, in which Lincoln Rhyme, a quadriplegic forensics expert, must solve a series of crimes from his bed and enlists the assistance of a rookie policewoman, Amelia Sachs, who is burdened with the task of examining horrific crime scenes to provide information to Rhymeùbarely a step ahead of the murderer (1998). Although No Certain Rest lacks the grisly images and urgency of a murder mystery that has a murderer who is still alive and out to kill, the device of having Amelia do the investigating and relate the information to Rhyme while he at
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