Exactly seven years ago, my husband Charlie and I set off on a safari

of Kenya and Tanzania to celebrate our 25th anniversary. We quickly

discovered that a trip in a safari vehicle--one with a top that comes

off so tourists can take pictures without getting eaten by animals--is

a kind of confinement. You're not allowed to walk around, you have to

have an iron bladder, and you'd better like your fellow passengers,

including the tse tse flies.



The first part… Continue

When I began to write “The Dead Sea Codex,” I realized that I didn’t really want to go back to Israel and risk being blown up by a suicide bomber. So I cheated; I stayed home in Illinois. I used today’s

virtual magic carpet, the Internet. Lucky me—I avoided the purgatory of crowded

airports and multiple gas-powered vehicles to traverse oceans and time zones

only to arrive sleep-deprived, sweat-stained,…

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Since I'm new to the world of blogging, I'm going to explore it in

layers. That's appropriate, since I'm an archaeologist in my "day job"

at the University of Illinois.



My other job is mystery writing. Gradually I'm excavating my own life to

unearth situations and characters that will make good mysteries. Creepy

old attic museums--digs in Israel, Italy, and Nevada--peculiar academic

characters who… Continue