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Tess Gerritsen - The Bone Garden
"As ever, there are plenty of suspects to chose from…"
Synopsis:
Present day: Julia Hamill has made a horrifying discovery on the grounds of her new home in rural Massachusetts: a skull buried in the rocky soil - human, female, and, according to the trained eye of Boston medical examiner Maura Isles, scarred with the unmistakable marks of murder. But whoever this nameless woman was, and whatever befell her, is knowledge lost to another time…
Boston, 1830: In order to pay for his education, Norris Marshall, a talented but penniless student at Boston Medical College has joined the ranks of local “resurrectionists” - those who plunder graveyards and harvest the dead for sale on the black market. Yet even this ghoulish commerce pales beside the shocking murder of a nurse found mutilated on the university hospital grounds. And when a distinguished doctor meets the same grisly fate, Norris finds that trafficking in the illicit cadaver trade has made him a prime suspect.
To prove his innocence, Norris must track down the only witness to have glimpsed the killer: Rose Connolly, a beautiful seamstress from the Boston slums who fears she may be the next victim. Joined by a sardonic, keenly intelligent young man named Oliver Wendell Holmes, Norris and Rose comb the city - from its grim cemeteries and autopsy suites to its glittering mansions and centres of Brahmin power - on the trail of a maniacal fiend who lurks where least expected… and who waits for his next lethal opportunity.
Review:
In a slight change of style for Gerritson, the majority of this book is set in the 19th Century and reminded me of books from Barbara Erskine, but with more of a crime element.
Despite the setting being nearly two hundred years ago, not usually my genre of choice, I nonetheless enjoyed The Bone Garden and its fast pace together with the usual whodunit element. Not only was the pace maintained throughout the book, but there was clearly a lot research and historical information which was very interesting.
As ever, there are plenty of suspects to chose from when trying to guess the murderer, although some, of course, were deliberate red herrings.
This book is extremely well written and would appeal to all readers who enjoy both present day and and historical thrillers, together with Gerritsen fans everywhere.
Reviewed by: H.A.
CrimeSquad Rating:
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