Thursday, October 25, 2007


THE BONE GARDEN
Tess Gerritsen Bantam Press $37

Julia Hamill, recently divorced, has bought a run down property in rural Massachusetts and while trying to bring order to the garden makes a gruesome discovery, a skull buried in the stony soil. Boston medical examiner Maura Isles establishes that these are the remains of a female that they have been buried there for more than a hundred years and that they bear the unmistakable signs of murder.

So begins the eleventh novel from bestselling US crime writer Tess Gerritsen who is also a physician, (where do US publishers find all these professional medicos who can write so well?), so in Patricia Cornwell style you get amazingly detailed descriptions of medical procedures within the story displaying her knowledge of emergency & autopsy rooms.

The story goes back to 1830 Boston, the year and place in which the murder happened, where we meet a couple of most admirable characters, Norris Marshall, a penniless medical student, and Rose Connolly, a beautiful seamstress from the Boston slums.

Gerritsen cleverly weaves the narrative between the 19th and 21st centuries and develops terrific suspense, almost unbearable in parts, which is maintained throughout this unputdownable thriller.
Read more about the author at http://www.tessgerritsen.com/

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous5:10 pm

    I agree with your assessment of this book. I read it last weekend and found it rivetting, she is a terrific writer. I must say however that I find the technique of flicking backwards and forwards in time which many authors use to be a bit bloody irritating at times!

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