BOOK REVIEW

Bones by Jan Burke. Edgar Allan Poe Award winner.

(Brought to you by kat impatientreader.com) Crime reporter Irene Kelly has made the worst decision of her life. She is about to go on an expedition into the wilderness with a vicious serial killer to find the unmarked grave where he buried his last victim.

She reached this point after four years of digging for news on Julia Sayre, the victim.  Julia's intense teenage daughter Gillian initially approached Irene about writing up her mother's story; every few months, Gillian makes contact with Irene to see if anything new has happened.  Everyone has given up on the possibility that Julia might still be alive.  They just hope to find her body and close the case for the family.

Then serial killer Nick Parrish confesses to the killing.  He has already been arrested for the torture-murder of another woman, and he faces the death penalty. He strikes an unprecedented deal with the district attorney to lead a team of law enforcement personnel to the place in the remote wilderness where he buried Julia Sayre. In return, he gets to avoid the death penalty, and get life in prison. 

Julia Sayre's family insists that Irene join the team escorting Nick Parrish to the grave. So she packs her hiking gear and complies over the objections of both her husband, homicide detective Frank Harriman, and the guys on the team.

The team itself consists of four prison guards for Nick; Phil Newly, Nick's lawyer; a police photographer nick-named Flash;  two forensic anthropologist Ben Sheridan and David Niles; Bob Thompson, the homicide detective originally assigned to Julia Sayre's case; Andy Stewart, a botanist; and J.C., a Forest Service ranger. David Niles is also a dog-handler and has brought along a cadaver-finding dog: a splendid and assertive German shepherd known as Bingle.

Their reactions towards Irene range from tolerance (from Andy, J.C., and David Niles) to outright hostility (from Detective Thompson, and Ben Sheridan the anthropologist who seems to be a complete jerk).  At least, Irene reasons, the team doesn't hate her as much as they do Nick Parrish and his lawyer.

The team flies in a small aircraft into a remote region in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains. They disembark and escort Nick Parrish, draped in chains, on the first leg of a several-day hike.  Nick's evil presence disturbs everyone – most of all Irene whom he watches constantly.  She knows that she is the physical type of all the victims he sought out, and it makes her feel unsafe despite the presence of all the guards.

She's right to worry.  Nick Parrish is about to an ingenuous plan to secure his freedom – and she is the only one of the team that he is interested in keeping alive.

This Edgar Award-winning mystery provides plenty of chills in the first half of the book (to roughly page 175) in the wilderness setting. The author writes with authority about hiking, mountains, and dogs. Irene's struggle to survive grabs you by the throat. The second half, set back in the city of Las Piernas, slows in comparison, but is still involving.

Bones gets three stars out of five, and is available on Amazon through this link:

Bones

Noteworthy Links:   Wonderquest - Science Q/A! The Connection - Tech blog! Author site - John the Eunuch Historical Mystery series, Cozy Mystery List for all your cozy mystery needs, Obsidian Bookshelf - reviews of gay-themed fiction. Impatient Reader is not responsible for content found through offsite links.