On a cold February morning after winding up a particularly
difficult case, British forensic anthropologist Dr. David
Hunter is finally ready to head home to London. But before
David can get out of Glasgow, a call comes from an
overextended police force asking him to delay his trip to
check out a suspicious death on Runa, a small island
located in the Outer Hebrides.
David arrives on Runa to find a badly burned body in an
abandoned cottage. Although the condition of the body
suggests spontaneous combustion as a possible cause of
death, David has another explanation -- and it involves
murder.
It's not long before David finds his investigation hampered
by the locals. A tight communal village, almost to the
point of Xenophobia, the locals on Runa refuse to except
that the murderer could be one of their own. After the
investigation status is officially changed from "suspicious
death" to "homicide," the islanders become increasingly
more paranoid and hostile to the small task force.
As the investigation continues, the deaths start piling up.
David himself is attacked and a young cop numbers among the
dead. Then a savage winter storm hits, cutting off contact
with the mainland and leaving the cops working the case
more isolated than ever. The storm gives the killer the
upper hand and evidence starts disappearing at an alarming
rate. More alarming still is the knowledge that anyone with
pertinent information to the case has become a target. That
puts David and the men working with him at the top of the
killer's list.
WRITTEN IN BONE is the second novel featuring David Hunter
as protagonist. Although I hadn't read the first book, THE
CHEMISTRY OF DEATH, this one gives enough of Hunter's
backstory that I never felt lost. Beckett's prose gives the
reader a fine sense of place...and season. I read the book in
July, but while reading it, I felt like it was February and
cold. The villagers were all well drawn, and all of them
very suspicious (to me at least!). At different times, I
suspected all of them. I was less pleased with the ending,
since I'm not a big fan of the false ending. As far as I'm
concerned, one ending is good enough. Still, the book did
its job and entertained me for the week I read it. It
pulled me in, kept me guessing; and the monster who jumped
out of the closet startled me at the end.
“I took the skull from its evidence bag and gently set
it on the stainless steel table. ‘Tell me who you
are. . . .’ ” With this silent plea, forensic expert
Dr. David Hunter ignites a harrowing murder investigation
on a windswept Scottish island, and a tale of menace,
sexuality, and revenge unravels—along with the chilling
message that a killer has…
Dr. David Hunter should
be in London with the woman he loves and a past he can’t
quite shake off. Instead, as a favor to a beleaguered cop,
Hunter travels to a remote island in the Outer Hebrides to
inspect a baffling set of remains. A forensic
anthropologist, he has seen bodies destroyed by all forms
of violence, but even he is surprised at what he finds:
human remains burned beyond recognition—all within the
confines of an otherwise undamaged, unoccupied cottage.
Local police want to rule the death accidental. But
Hunter’s examination of the victim’s charred skull tells
him that this woman, no doubt a stranger to the close-knit
island of Runa, was murdered by someone
nearby.
Within days, two more people are dead by
fire. Hunter’s job is to coax the dead into telling their
stories—but now that he’s beginning to hear them, he is
staggered by the truth. Working with only the barest of
clues, he peels back the layers of mysteries past and
present, exposing the tangle of secrets at the heart of
this strange community—from the deceptions of a wealthy
couple to the bitterness of an ex-cop and the secrets of a
lonely single mother—as a tale of rage and perversion
comes full circle…then explodes in a series of violent
acts and shocking twists.
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy