Description:

Unemployed professional geologist and sometime FBI consultant, Em Hansen desperately needs work. So when her best friend Faye tells her that she knows someone who could use Em's expertise as a geologist to authenticate a painting, she jumps at the prospect. The painting is by the famous painter of the American West, Frederic Remington, and Em's client has had it in his family for years. But he believes it's a fake and wants Em to use her forensic skills to analyze the pigments to prove it. Since pigments are just ground-up minerals, it's a perfect task for a geologist like Em.

Although Em doesn't quite trust Faye's friend, she sets aside her doubts and takes the case. Following the painting's trail takes her from Wyoming to Utah to Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, and then it takes an unexpected sinister twist, putting Em on the trail of a murderer too. Suddenly she's the only one who can find out what's going on in time to save several lives, including her own.

From Publishers Weekly

In Andrews's ninth intriguing mystery to feature forensic geologist Em Hansen (after 2003's Killer Dust), Em explores a whole new aspect of her discipline after reluctantly agreeing to try to authenticate a Frederick Remington painting through pigment analysis for a client she dislikes. As she travels through such vividly depicted locales as Cody, Wyo., and the Amish and Mennonite areas of Pennsylvania, Em gathers a history of pigment as well as information to fuel her growing suspicion that something is terribly wrong. She encounters the seedier side of the art world, a renowned Pennsylvania family's horrific secrets and murder. Thanks to clear logical thinking, Em ultimately reaches all the right conclusions. If there's a fault line beneath the surface, it lies in the surfeit of technical terminology, though more scientifically inclined readers may consider this a virtue.
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From Booklist

With a fascinating blend of art and science, geologist Em Hansen solves her ninth case. Em is attending graduate school to become a forensic geologist while helping her best friend, single-mom Faye Carter Latimer, take care of her infant daughter. Faye finds Em a job analyzing paint pigments to discover if a painting by western artist Frederic Remington is a forgery. When the client promises she may analyze other rare paintings his family owns for her master's thesis, Em heads east to talk with experts in the field and to see the other paintings, combining her investigative work with research for her thesis. The story becomes more complex when Em realizes that someone is slowly poisoning her client's family. An appealing main character and a wealth of fascinating details involving land preservation, forensic geology, western art, and the science of paint pigment add depth to the latest entry in a solid series. Sue O'Brien
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