Synopsis

North Carolina college history professor Simon Shaw has been dubbed a forensic historian for his work in solving cold cases. But he's never had a case like this before. A woman named Helen Williams asks him to help her recover past memories. She thinks she may have committed infanticide in a past life as a woman named Annie Evans.

Though Simon and his colleagues scoff at the idea of reincarnation, Helen's memories seem realistic and disturbing as she recalls Annie's secret burial of a young child. Simon's learns that Annie Evans worked at the Raleigh Christian Orphanage near the turn of the 20th century. There she nursed ill toddler Stella Grimes back to health and went to work for the family when Stella's widowed mother remarried and retrieved Stella from the orphanage.

As Simon and Helen come closer to solving the truth about her memories, they face some real danger. "Accidents" happen to those who've provided them with information about Annie's life, but eventually the clues fall neatly into place, revealing family secrets in this unique, well-written installment of Shaber's enigmatic series.

Reviews

"Sarah Shaber's strongest novel yet! The Bug Funeral kept me totally absorbed. I literally could not put it down. She just gets better and better with each new book."
-- Margaret Maron

Shaw is an engaging hero -- self-effacing, yet whip smart -- and Shaber, as always, has done prodigious research and careful plotting that makes even the unlikeliest twists and a shocker ending somehow worthy of our trust.
--Raleigh News & Observer