THE BONE GARDEN
Tess Gerritsen
Ballantine Books
Thriller
ISBN-10: 0345497600
ISBN-13: 9780345497604

• Read an Excerpt

In her Acknowledgments at the beginning of THE BONE GARDEN, Tess Gerritsen states that it had been a long and hard year for her as she labored to bring this book to life. The research that forms the backdrop of each and every one of her novels is painstaking and meticulous, and then seamlessly and flawlessly integrated into an addicting, riveting mystery, all the while making it look easy. It is almost beyond belief that Gerritsen can pull this off so well year after year, but she does, continuing to meet and surpass the quality of her prior efforts.
 
THE BONE GARDEN begins with a gruesome discovery. Julia Hamill, newly divorced, is in the midst of beginning a garden at her new home near Boston when her shovel hits bone --- a skull, to be exact. Boston medical examiner Maura Isles is able to determine quickly enough that the skull bears the markings of foul play. The crime scene, however, contains evidence demonstrating that the evil deed was performed almost two centuries before, so that the identity of the perpetrator appears to be lost in the sands of time. But Hamill remains haunted by the discovery. When a cache of papers documenting the history of her home comes to light, Hamill jumps at the chance to read them.
 
The papers tell the story of Norris Marshall, a first-year student at Boston Medical College in 1830. Marshall has a talent for medicine but is of extremely limited financial means; accordingly, he must supplement his income with work as a “resurrectionist” --- a grave robber, if you will, who sells the corpses to medical colleges for teaching purposes. When a series of gruesome murders occurs, in close proximity to Marshall, he finds that he is the prime suspect.
 
His only ally is Rose Connolly, a penniless seamstress who is the sole support of her orphaned niece. Connolly is a witness to one of the murders, but her description of the perpetrator --- a wing-caped monster who looks like the Grim Reaper --- is given little credence. The murders, however, have an unforeseen connection to Connolly, one that will put herself and her niece in terrible danger as she and Marshall are unexpectedly drawn into a world of wealth and power where no one can be trusted.
 
While THE BONE GARDEN has a host of interesting protagonists, good and bad, its most pervasive one is the Boston of 1830. Gerritsen paints a stark and sympathetic picture of the poverty-stricken Irish immigrants of the era; their living conditions will have more than one reader, including this one, counting their many blessings of day-to-day life that are taken for granted. She also provides an over-the-shoulder look at medical schooling in that far removed era, one that undoubtedly will discourage reading at mealtime for a while.
 
A puzzling mystery, intriguing characters and a fascinating background combine to make THE BONE GARDEN Gerritsen’s most compelling work to date.

   --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.

© Copyright 1996-2008, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.

Back to top.