Mystereity Reviews
Written on Jul 2, 2021
Anthropology professor Gideon Oliver, “The Skeleton Doctor" as he’s known in the media, returns to France at the request of French police detective Joly when a local dog brings home human bones. After tracking down the location where the bones were taken from, Joly and Gideon find themselves with a new case, as the bones were found not to be ancient, but just a few years old. Untangling all of the threads lead Gideon and Joly to a local history museum where they find a group of esteemed scientists who seem to have something to hide. Do they know how the bones came to be left in a cave?
I absolutely loved this one! While it seemed like Joly and Gideon were spinning their wheels, the plot actually moves along pretty quickly and all of that wheel spinning helped muddy up the waters enough that I constantly doubted who I thought was behind the murders. I loved that Gideon’s wife Julie was along for the ride and acted like Gideon's Doubting Thomas/sounding board, it really added a nice dimension to the story, as I read the other books in the series, I’m hoping to see more of her.
In the end, it turned out I was right about the culprit but I loved reading about the how and why. It turns out to be quite a twisted story, and made for a satisfying ending.
If you like books about archaeology/anthropology with a dash of action and amazing characters, a la Kathy Reich's Temperance Brennen or Elly Giffiths's Ruth Galloway, you’ll love this series. Definitely recommend!