My Lady of the Bog (An Archeo-forensic Mystery)

My Lady of the Bog follows the American anthropologist, Xander Donne, as he seeks to unravel the ultimate "cold case": that of a beautiful young woman found in an English bog, her nude body pinned down with stakes. Though she's thought at first to be a recent murder victim, Donne identifies her as an ancient sacrifice, wondrously preserved by the bog's airless waters, and dead for 700 years!During his examination of her body, he pulls off the rune-inscribed stakes. Too late he learns their inscription warns against precisely this, saying, "Do not remove these stakes. This woman is a witch." Donne's investigation into the mysterious woman's identity and frightful death takes him from contemporary England to India's medieval Moghul Empire, embroiling him in an illicit passion with a gorgeous, enigmatic Deshi princess with, just maybe, a penchant for murder.Peter Hayes' mystery is a meditation on the meaning of human sacrifice, a love story and historical mystery enfolded within a modern one.

From Booklist

Xander Donne, an American anthropologist working in Exeter, England, is not surprised when a long-buried body is found in a nearby bog: corpses have been turning up in bogs all over the country for many years, perfectly preserved relics of millennia-old culture. But this one is a bit different: it’s not nearly as old as other corpses (several centuries, yes, but not thousands of years old), and it was buried with a treasure trove of ancient Celtic artifacts, including a book written in an ancient language from another part of the world. Soon Xander learns that the ancient writing on the stakes that had secured the body to the ground—the stakes that have now been removed—instructs anyone who finds the body not to release it from its bindings because the woman is a witch. Despite this setup, the novel isn’t a supernatural thriller; it’s a story about a scientist who is determined to find the explanation for some unusual and frightening goings-on. A compelling thriller, certain to interest Erin Hart fans. --David Pitt

About the Author

PETER HAYES' prize-winning fiction first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly. He is author of The Supreme Adventure, a book on yoga and Eastern philosophy, and The Feathered Serpent, a thriller. He has traveled widely, living, studying and working for extended periods in India and in England. His company, TARA, provides communications for organizations, large and small. A talented harmonica player, he fronts the band Petey-Boy. Peter was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy and at Harvard College, where he studied writing with Bernard Malamud. He lives in New York's Hudson Valley with his wife, Uma, and their son, Siddhartha.

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