Unnatural Selection

by Aaron Elkins

Book Overview

The Edgar(-winning author of Where There's a Will returns with another bone-chilling mystery starring Skeleton Detective and forensics professor Gideon Oliver. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0425216055
• ISBN13: 9780425216057
• Release Date: July 2007
• Publisher: Berkley Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.31 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Good Mystery, Great Forensics

Gideon Oliver is a forensic anthropologist, a person who studies human bones to help the police determine who the deceased was and/or how he died. This is what distinguishes Oliver from other detectives in fiction. By now, Elkins has consulted with quite a number of scientists to make sure that Gideon gets his facts straight, and there are lots of facts. Unnatural Selection has more forensics in it than any of the others in the series. Other people on this page have described most of the plot, so I'll just say a little about it. The action starts with Gideon, on vacation, examining a partial bone that had been discovered in the sand on a beach. He realizes that the marks on one end show that it had been sawed through and concludes that the person was probably murdered. He notifies the local police, they dig up more bones, and Gideon starts to piece together the story of the murder. This all takes place in the context of a conference attended by several rather unusual people. Elkins likes to populate these novels with odd characters and he accomplishes that here by having a rich man convene a conference of people who are very interested in ecology but not very interested in scientific standards of evidence. Naturally, there are a lot of conflicts. Since we have to spend time with the suspects as Elkins establishes their personalities and their motives for murder, it's good of him to give us such interesting ones. For me, a mystery writer should present enough evidence for the reader to guess who the murderer is, but should distract the reader so that he doesn't actually guess before the denouement. When Gideon and police sergeant Clapper confront the killer using evidence that had not been presented before, I felt that Elkins had "cheated". But I reread the book and I realized that there was enough information for us to guess. However, that would not be enough to justify an arrest in real life, so the, in order to make a satisfying ending to the story, Elkins provides additional info to the police. Interestingly, there is one clue that is so subtle that most readers will miss it. As we're reaching the end, Elkins puts in a suggestion to go back and reread that passage, but I was too eager to get to the end and I just kept reading. As for the bones, this one is a solid winner for Gideon Oliver fans. Even before any crime is discovered, he describes to a regional museum director what the bones of a Cromwellian soldier tell about the soldier's life and death. As far as I can tell, this is a bonus, having nothing to do with the plot. Then he finds the sawn-off tibia and sets off the investigation. He uses some of the methods that appear in earlier books, but he also uses some new ones. For example, in the past he has used dentition and the ossification of long bones and the pubis to determine age; here he uses ossification of the cartilage connecting the ribs to the sternum - similar idea, but expanding our knowledge. For th

Gideon Oliver continues to grow in complexity and depth of character.

I read Unnatural Selection in late July when I had a lot going on in my life and although I enjoyed it, I felt I had missed something. I read it again last weekend and found I had missed some of the plot twists because of my inattention and this time I could not put it down. The extreme egos of some of the characters and the setting itself combine to create the suspense that continues to build throughout the story. The interaction of the characters that causes increased tension in the group has some quirky bits that I thought were classic satire. (I have met people who remind me of the members of this group.) This is the kind of story, like most of the earlier Gideon Oliver mysteries, that can be read again and again and I am sure that each time I read it I will discover some nuance that I missed earlier.

One of his best yet!

I found the setting, the mystery itself and the interaction between Gideon and Julie about the best he has ever done! Although Good Blood's mystery was somewhat more convoluted and ,therefore to me, more of a puzzle to solve as I read the book, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and have relayed my opinion to several of my friends who enjoy a good forensic mystery combined with a good story line. As I've personally told Aaron Elkins before, he is one of my all-time favorite writers and I always am on the lookout for a new novel from him or when he teams up with wife Charlotte

Unnatural Selection

I can highly recommend Aaron Elkins books. From the first book of his featuring "Gideon Oliver", I found both the storys and the author to be exceptionally good! I thought as a woman, these books would not be my cup of tea, but they're great. His recent book, Unnatural Selection is no exception. Don't hestiate to order this one! You'll want to read the whole series.

This should go right to the top of your pile.

I don't care who else has a book out, this one is the next to read. Aside from well defined characters, intriguing where's-he-going-with-that? tidbits of clues, and fascinating plot twists, Elkins' Gideon Oliver series always evoke an almost irresistable sense of place. This time, your page-turning mini-vacation spot is the Scilly Isles, where you'll meet an odd assortment of humans, bones, and even a few highly trained professional dogs. As usual, all the clues you need are deftly hidden in plain sight. Fans of the delightful Julie will be happy to know she's in a lot of this one. Fans of her now ritual astute insight - perfectly right, but utterly misleading to the reader -won't be disappointed. My only complaint is that Elkins doesn't write faster!