This book is the first of three novels starring Vietnamese-American sleuth-by-happenstance Anh Santos. Her husband has recently died of Covid-19. She was going to shut down his one-man detective agency, but a case falls into her lap. Desperate to pay off overdue bills, she decides to try to solve the case herself.

The first part of the book tells two stories in parallel. One is the story of a deputy U.S. Marshal in 1898, who is sent from the Arizona Territory to deliver an important court decision to the Federal Courthouse in Carson City, Nevada. The corrupt rich bastards of the era ensure that he never makes it.

The other story follows Anh and how she discovers the mummified corpse of the deputy marshal in the Nevada desert. As the book progresses, this becomes the only storyline. She tries to find out who the mummy is and if he has any living relatives. In the process, she discovers that the crime of 1898 has ramifications today.

I liked the ethnic diversity of the characters and its consequences. It's a realistic portrayal of the America both today and in the 19th Century.

I didn't like all of the Covid-19 stuff. The author is trying to make the book timely. Twenty years from now, telling a story set in the Covid era would make sense. As society forgets what life was like, it's good to get a glimpse of that era. Writing that story now, just two years out, it's just a reminder of how unpleasant those times were. It detracts from the story instead of adding to it. Wait 20 years before setting a story during Covid times. Real life will probably be pretty horrible then, and we'll all have nostalgia for the "simpler times" of working from home and yelling at each other about vaccines and face masks.

The writer is a mediocre wordsmith, but that's the best I can say about his writing ability. He competently conveys the details and actions of the story, but there's minor clumsiness throughout the book.

For example, characters frequently speak in texting acronyms. When something strange happens, one of the characters will often say "WTF?". Nobody talks like that! The acronym is more syllables than the words it's replacing!

Another example is that the writer spends too much time telling us what his character has for breakfast (or lunch, or dinner) and how many showers she takes.

Despite the writing, the plot is engaging and kept me reading. Well, for 3/4 of the book anyway. The book jumps the shark somewhere around the 75% mark. The U.S. government confiscates the mummy (citing "national security"), the main character then starts acting like no normal person does, and the FBI is unusually incompetent. The author awkwardly manipulates events to set up the exciting chases and fights that make up the remainder of the book (and they are kind of exciting).

Finally, the epilog is WAY too happy. Everything wraps up in the best and most fortuitous way possible for all of the characters.