Old Bones

By Aaron Elkins

Book Overview

Winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best mystery novel of the year. With the roar of thunder and the speed of a galloping horse comes the tide to Mont St. Michel goes the old nursery song. So when the aged patriarch of the du Rocher family falls victim to the perilous tide, even the old man's family accepts the verdict of accidental drowning. But too quickly, this "accident" is followed by a bizarre discovery in the ancient du Rocher chateau: a human skeleton, wrapped in butcher paper, beneath the old stone flooring. Professor Gideon Oliver, lecturing on forensic anthropology at nearby St. Malo, is asked to examine the bones. He quickly demonstrates why he is known as the "Skeleton Detective," providing the police with forensic details that lead them to conclude that these are the remains of a Nazi officer believed to have been murdered in the area during the Occupation. Or are they? Gideon himself has his doubts. Then, when another of the current du Rochers dies-this time via cyanide poisoning-his doubts solidify into a single certainty: someone wants old secrets to stay buried . . . and is perfectly willing to eradicate the meddlesome American to make that happen. Aaron Elkins is a former anthropologist and professor who has been writing mysteries and thrillers since 1982. His major continuing series features forensic anthropologist-detective Gideon Oliver, "the Skeleton Detective." There are fifteen published titles to date in the series. The Gideon Oliver books have been (roughly) translated into a major ABC-TV series and have been selections of the Book-of-the-Month Club, the Literary Guild, and the Readers Digest Condensed Mystery Series. His work has been published in a dozen languages. Mr. Elkins won the 1988 Edgar Award for best mystery of the year for Old Bones, the fourth book in the Gideon Oliver Series. He and his cowriter and wife, Charlotte, also won an Agatha Award, and he has also won a Nero Wolfe Award. Mr. Elkins lives on Washington's Olympic Peninsula with Charlotte.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1497643155
• ISBN13: 9781497643154
• Release Date: July 2014
• Publisher: Open Road Media Mystery & Thri
• Length: 212 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Old Bones Tell Good Stories

Since no editorial reviews were listed, here's an excerpt from the Publisher's Weekly Review, followed by my comments: "When revered Resistance-hero Guillaume du Rocher drowns in a rushing flood tide off Mont St. Michel, members of the family summoned by Guillaume on undisclosed urgent business are already assembled at the domaine du Rocher, where, instead, they hear his will. The next day in the basement, a partial skeleton is uncovered, and Gideon Oliver, American physical anthropologist known as the ``Skeleton Detective,'' is called from his lectures at an international forensics conference to examine the bones. Gideon confirms the remains, determines that they are those of a young man dead almost 50 years, suggesting a connection to local Resistance actions, including one in which Guillaume's brother Alain was executed after Claude Fougeray, a du Rocher cousin and now Guillaume's principal heir, collaborated with the enemy. " End of Publisher's Weekly Excerpt The action moves along and the discoveries that reveal themselves put me in mind of a cross between Robert Goddard's stately British mysteries and the more current Simon Beckett.

Ingeniously crafted mystery!

One of the best mysteries I've ever read. It reminded me about what I loved about Sherlock Holmes stories. First and foremost, Elkins' writing is very fluid and descriptive. This story is succinct and poignant without the frills of other writers trying to show how wonderfully they can write. A close second, is Elkins' protagonist, Gideon Oliver, an anthropologist with a talent for his analysis of skeletons. There are many layers to this mystery and they come together very nicely. Great ending! Powerful and with a twist!

Old Bones Used

The book arrived in good time, and although used, was in like new condition. We are very pleased.

A little cliched at times, but overall solid

This book is one of the rarities these days. A book categorized as a mystery, that actually is. "Old Bones", was an enjoyable read that read quickly, only taking a few days of moderate reading. Sure the gathering of a family with strained relationships, decades after some troubling event and all sharing some family secret, is a common theme in mysteries, but it works here, just as it has in so many other novels. What makes this book most intriguing is the setting of Mont St. Michel and you'll find yourself caught up in the mystique. While the mystery isn't that complicated, nor the solution that shocking, there are definite elements of the story that can't help but make you appreciate the book. This book sold me enough on reading another Aaron Elkins book down the road.

Making bones fascinating

Gideon Oliver is one of my current favorite characters, and this one happened to be the first Elkins book I read. This is an engaging mystery that I eventually figured out (before Gideon did). If you read it, you will enjoy it