Lyn Hamilton Books in Order

Lyn Hamilton was a Canadian mystery writer whose books paired present-day crimes with the pull of the ancient world. Born in Toronto, she attended school, lived, and worked in the city, and Toronto remained the home base for both Hamilton and her best-known character, antiques dealer Lara McClintoch.

At the University of Toronto, Hamilton studied physical and cultural anthropology alongside English literature. Ancient civilizations caught her attention early, but she decided she did not have the patience for the painstaking work of archaeology. The interest never went away. She kept taking courses in archaeology, mythology, ancient history, languages, and even Egyptian hieroglyphics, while using her travels to visit historic sites.

Before fiction, Hamilton worked in public relations and communications for corporations, nonprofit organizations, and government. She was also director of public affairs for the Canadian Opera Company. Her most useful job experience for the novels came from six years as director of the Ontario government's Cultural Programs Branch, where she worked around archaeological licensing, museums, conservation, and heritage organizations.

She had the research contacts. She just needed a detective.

Hamilton began writing crime fiction in her fifties, and her first novel, The Xibalba Murders, appeared in 1997. It introduced Lara McClintoch, a Toronto antiques dealer rebuilding her life after a difficult marriage. A trip to Mexico brings Lara into a case involving Maya artifacts, theft, murder, and a missing friend. The book was nominated for an Arthur Ellis Award for best first crime novel in Canada.

Hamilton wrote one Lara novel each year through 2007. The stories took readers from Malta and Peru to Ireland, Tunisia, Italy, Thailand, Hungary, Easter Island, Scotland, and China. In The Maltese Goddess, Lara finds a body hidden in antique furniture. The Celtic Riddle turns an Irish inheritance into a dangerous treasure hunt. The Etruscan Chimera follows a rare artifact and a murder through Tuscany, while The Chinese Alchemist sends Lara after a stolen silver box said to contain a formula for immortality.

The books are travel mysteries, but the travel is never just scenery. Hamilton visited every place she used, took notes and photographs, talked with local people and specialists, and built each plot around an artifact, a historical question, or an old story. Her modern mysteries often run alongside material from the past, with mythology and archaeology helping Lara make sense of a very current danger.

Lara shares some of Hamilton's interests, especially antiques and ancient cultures, but Hamilton joked that her heroine was younger, smarter, braver, and better-looking. Lara also has a stronger habit of walking into trouble. That mix of humor, curiosity, loyal friends, prickly relationships, and serious questions about looting and cultural heritage gives the series its easygoing but thoughtful feel.

Hamilton also made time for other writers. She served as writer-in-residence at Toronto's North York Central Library and at Kitchener Public Library, taught courses and seminars, and mentored aspiring authors. Her practical advice was simple: read, write, learn from the work you admire, and keep going after rejection.

Her final Lara novel was The Chinese Alchemist. Hamilton was diagnosed with bile duct cancer while working on it, and she died in 2009. The eleven Lara McClintoch mysteries remain a lively record of her love of history, travel, and a well-placed fictional corpse.