Five by Ursula Archer is intriguing

Geocaching - the contemporary treasure hunt in which a GPS is used to find hidden objects - lends itself to an intriguing melding of a gripping police procedural and an exciting update of the puzzle mystery in Austrian children's book author Ursula Archer's crime fiction debut.

Archer imbues Five with an inventive plot, tense suspense and fully realized characters that seem as if they have been around for years. Archer's clever use of geocaching proves that the light puzzle mystery can be successfully incorporated into a hard-boiled novel with aplomb. An insider's view of Austria, which is seldom used in US mysteries, adds another welcome dimension to Five.

The murder investigation of a woman, whose feet are tattooed with GPS coordinates, leads detectives Beatrice Kaspary and her partner, Florin Wenninger, to a box buried by someone involved with geocaching. Amid the trinkets normally left are human remains and a note with clues to a second site and another gruesome find. Soon, Beatrice and Florin, who are with the Salzburg State Office of Criminal Investigation, are led to more victims with clues hidden in geocache sites.