Desecration: An Ashley Hayes Mystery (Volume 1)

Dan Baldwin has a fast-paced, interesting read in his novel DESECRATION. The setting is an area known locally as the ARK-LA-TEX (southwestern Arkansas, northwestern Louisiana, northeastern Texas). The protagonist is Dr. Ashley Maud Hayes, a professor of archaeology from Centenary College in Shreveport, LA. She is recruited by pun-prone city detective Bummer LaSalle to investigate the vandalism of a local cemetery. The crime seems to have been done by an individual from the Caddo Indian tribe, a formerly indigenous group from that region and Ashley's area of expertise. However, the apparent prank soon morphs into the murder of a not-so-favorite-son of a prominent Shreveport family. Ashley's help is needed more than ever. Dan's story deals not only with murder, but the very problem of the desecration of Native American burial sites, the trafficking of pilfered relics and an underground network of dealers. The author has his usual cadre of curious characters, from truck stop waitresses to a state senator, from pottery and point hunters to a Native American "wanna-be" who wrecks havoc across the region.