RUNEMAKER

The murder of inoffensive Danish fisherman Sren Rasmussen, 80, spells trouble for his friend Margit Anderssen, the intrepid Seattle translator he'd wanted to translate a brief letter—a plea from him to an attorney asking for help, as it turns out. Following the clues in another document in her mail, a set of three drawings and a runic inscription that doesn't seem to be correctly copied, Margit is off and running on a treasure hunt for one of the ancient Golden Horns stolen in 1802 from the Royal Art Chamber in Denmark and missing ever since. Her competition: a knife-wielding rogue archeologist who, like Margit, comes out one step short in their every confrontation (and there are plenty). An unmysterious first mystery from Nunnally (Maija, 1995) most likely to appeal to translators (on whose behalf many well- earned plugs) and Nordic antiquarians.