Customer Reviews

The Bone Chamber: A Sydney Fitzpatrick Mystery (Sydney Fitzpatrick Mysteries)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Bone Chamber has more action packed into one book than you could ever imagine!
A list as long as your arm ...everyone gets a short spot in this story that is very much historical action packed and much like Indiana Jones meets DeVanci in the Vatican!

You begin knowing that this is a going to be a search for some artifax! But, you could never ever imagine all of the agencies that are picked up along the way.
Intriguring mystery, Sydney Fitzpatric is a frensic artist for the FBI, Despert for a long awaited vacation, she must miss the plane a dozen times?
Her search to help uncover the identy of a corpse that has no feats urers takes her on a complicated search for history and links to and from Rome, the Vatican, deep into crypt in Rome and Naples.
All the agencies that come to mind, FBI CIA Mafia figuers, black ops, international hit men, even questionable agencies, following
long standing rumors, ledgens and details rumored regarding the Vacatin, The Knights Templar, Freemassions, There all here! Plots
and sub plots! Glorious reading!

This is a well researched book, totally believable. I will leave it to the others to give names and characters and say to you if you love fast acting adventurers, crypts, ledgions, you will love this book, Looking forward to another by this author. It is a read again book.
Hope this has help in your selection.

The Bone Chamber is yet another title that is reminiscent of the conspiracy and Templar Knights novels by Dan Brown, Steve Berry, Raymond Khoury et al. This action-packed thriller features FBI forensic artist Sydney Fitzpatrick in her second outing (after Face of a Killer) and is a romp through the city and the underground burial chambers of Rome as she and her cohorts try to foil a dastardly plot involving money and murder. Despite being advertised as such, this is not a book about the Catholic church keeping a secret from the world and the Vatican is only vaguely mentioned. It's more about a super secret agency, ATLAS, that is charged with protecting the world from a competing group of megalomaniacs who want to possess the treasure of the Templars, including a map that just might contain directions to the location of all the Biblical plagues of Moses -- the better to make a bio-weapon.

It is a bit long and drags in places; Sydney is annoying at intervals as she displays a lot of angst over trusting herself but repeatedly sticks her nose into the case long after being dismissed from her forensic duties. There are the typical mad car chases, escapes from certain death at the hands of the evil henchmen, and a harrowing scene in the underground burial chambers. A little romance with one of the ATLAS operatives is developing and the book ends with hints that there will be a sequel involving Griffin.

I might be tempted to check out the next book in the series. You don't have to read the first one to understand the characters or the plot of this novel as it can stand alone.

As I write this review, my reflections vacillate. The main character rocks. She is strong, intelligent and resourceful. On the flip side, the reader must suspend belief in specific facts- the rules of gravity and motion do not apply to sections of this tome... and that irritated the snot out of me!

The bottom line is to chose The Bone Chamber for "escape reading." I loved the tension, flow and resolution within the telling of this tale. As a result, it is only good as a reading snack. Don't take it too seriously!

This is a good book to read at an airport, on the beach, or in some other such area where you just want to pass the time with something a little bit fun. It's a novel in the Dan Brown genre, although it doesn't pretend to espouse the same kind of "revolutionary" concepts.

The strongest element of the book by far is its protagonist, Sydney Fitzpatrick, who comes off as a strong, but believable woman. Robin Burcell has managed the balancing act of presenting to us a woman with strength and determination who, at the same time, doesn't come off as aggressive or posturing the way that a lot of 'strong women' in modern literature do. Her determination to find justice doesn't feel like an author fiat -- she's driven by guilt over the death of her friend. Her budding romance with Zachary Griffin is amusing, if a bit more shallow than I would prefer, and the other FBI agents depicted in the story were fun.

The story moved quickly, with very little mushy aimlessness in the middle. It felt like everything that happened built seamlessly into the next event. There was nothing particularly special about the prose, but the author does have a gift for snappy, amusing dialogue.

All in all, I would recommend this book as a light read. I'll be looking out for the next in the series.

Summoned to do a routine sketch of a mutilated murder victim, forensic artist Sydney Fitzpatrick soon finds herself embroiled in an international conspiracy involving several mysterious government agencies. When the colleague who recommended her for the job is also killed, Sydney puts her career with the FBI in jeopardy, flying off to Europe in search of answers.

Incorporating the Templars and their alleged treasure, Freemasonry, biblical history and the Vatican--elements previously put to good use by the likes of Dan Brown, Raymond Khoury and others--Burcell provides a well-crafted, fun and fast-moving thriller. One difference separating this from others of the genre is the fact Robin Burcell is an FBI-trained forensic artist and has worked in law enforcement for several decades, credentials which lend her account an authenticity lacking in the others.

If your taste runs to international trips on the fly, scrambling through the depths of the Vatican, puzzling over old, old clues to mysteries regarding the Knights Templar and the Masons this is the book for you. Now I am not going to list the entire plot for you that has been done by others, better than I . Although this plot has been used and reused since DeVinci et al there is still fun and mystery in trying it one more time. There has been much mystery about the masons for hundreds of years and they are well incorporated into this nove. Take Sydney a young FBI agent who follows orders to the wall, add the death of a good friend, mix with a man of mystery, Griffin, and suddendly Sydney develops a much more quizical nature and begins looking at things closer and seeing what probably should not be seen by her and the chase is off. This is a well written intricate novel and you really need to pay close attention to detail as the plot unravels. I throughly enjoyed the book and will be looking for sequels.

The Bone Chamber is a thinking person's mystery, not a quick-read, cozy mystery. You'll have to keep track of the characters and events or you will get lost. I had to go back and read pages over again several times in order to keep up with the plot. But it was SO worth it!

This book has everything: mystery, suspense, history, romance and even some touches of the DaVinci Code and Indian Jones. The suspense builds quickly and keeps you turning pages all the way to the end. As a matter of fact, my husband and I were reading it together (me in the book and he on his Kindle) and were racing to see who would get to the end first!

Burcell creates a heroine who is easy to identify with and care about. Sydney Fitzpatrick is a FBI forensic artist with a past. She's a reluctant heroine who just wants to do life, but once she gets in the action, there's no stopping her. Her love interest is handsome and mysterious, making me wonder if he is friend or foe, adding to the excitement. The other characters are equally interesting and believable. The plot involved murder, hidden treasures, missing maps, and secret underground caverns, all the things that make for an exciting read.

Although the ending was satisfying and enjoyable, it left me with the feeling that there could be a sequel. I hope so! I'm looking forward to reading more of Burcell's books!

Though the theme of the book, a conspiracy that involves the Templar Knights/Freemasons and possible hidden treasure is not a new one, the Bone Chamber delivers a solid thriller.

This is the second book that features FBI forensic artist, Sydney Fitzpatrick, though the first I have read in the series. I found it really interesting that Ms. Burcell was also an FBI trained forensic artist as well as a police officer, detective & hostage negotiater in her former life, bringing Sydney's character fully to life.

Sydney is called upon to recreate a face, one that has basically been carved off in the shape of a triangle. She tries to enlist another forensic specialist as she is leaving for a Thanksgiving holiday, but the friend is mysteriously killed in a hit and run. Sydney, who is usually a play it by the book agent starts to question the mystery surrounding the dead girl and starts to wonder who Special Agent Griffin, who is heading up the case actually works for. As Sydney continues to work through the case you learn that the dead girl is the daughter of the Ambassador of the Holy See (The Vatican)and that a trail of bodies seem to be left in the wake. Apparently, she knew something or had access to something that others would kill for-perhaps something that could lead back to the Templar Knights. Without giving too much away, you are in for a ride, biological warfare, biblical plagues, lost treasure and the Templar Knights as well as those close to the Vatican and the government all come in to play as Sydney steals off to Rome to follow the investigation and becomes much more involved then she ever dreamed she would be.

The last fifty pages are non-stop page turners as you want to find out how this will all be resolved. The ending was satisfying and I felt the book was a very good read. Don't miss the Author's Note at the back where she gives you a fact or fiction look at the Freemasons, the Knights Templar and true events that inspired her story.

I enjoyed the book and would look forward to reading both the prior book with Sydney Fitpatrick and more that she will come out with under this same series. No need to read the first book though before reading this. The book stands well on its own without any prior reading about the character.

Robin Burcell, The Bone Chamber (Harper, 2010)

Fans of The Da Vinci Code will probably like this book. I don't mean that to be anywhere near the slight it sounds (while my Da Vinci Code review on Amazon sports three stars, I have revised it to half that in my notes); The Bone Chamber is a far more intelligent treading of that particular path, and a great deal better. Robin Burcell credits her audience with a great deal more brainpower than does Dan Brown, and that makes all the difference.

Sydney Fitzpatrick, whom most readers will probably have encountered before in The Face of a Killer (I didn't have the pleasure, but will be picking it up as soon as is feasible), is headed off for Thanksgiving with her family when she gets a visit from a government official named Griffin. Griffin asks her to recommend a good forensic anthropologist for a case he's working; Fitzpatrick recommends her friend Tasha, the best in the business. Griffin then attempts to rope Fitzpatrick in on the same case (Fitzpatrick is a forensic artist), but given that she's on the next plane to California, she declines. A quick dinner with Tasha doesn't sway her to the cause, and off she goes--but when the plane touches down in California, there's an official-looking chap putting her back on a plane to Washington DC. Guess who's waiting for her? Griffin swears she'll only be inconvenienced for one night, until the sketch of their murder victim is done, but things don't always go as planned, and Fitzpatrick is not the type of woman to just let something go once her teeth are sunk into it. Things get more personal when a friend of hers is killed in a hit-and-run accident that seems to be no accident at all; Fitzpatrick starts fearing for her life, and knows the best way to get herself safe again is to figure out who their murder victim is and why she was killed. All this over Griffin's protests, of course, but his partner and best friend Tex, a ladies' man, is all too willing to have Fitzpatrick along for the ride.

Once the mystery is afoot, you'll start seeing why I compare the book to Brown's mega-hit; there's a lot of traipsing around looking for clues in ancient places, but where Brown's level of complexity goes as far as finding revelations any half-blind six-year-old could uncover, Burcell has actually thought to couch her puzzles in much more intriguing (and out-of-the-way) locations. Solving a puzzle with Dan Brown is like going to a museum you've been to dozens of times before; solving one with Burcell is all about going on a trek to places you've never been, and to which the public has little, if any, access. You actually feel like you might be learning something, though the book does go through a "things blow up" phase towards the end. Forgivable, though, and relatively believable (think about Venice crumbling at the end of the recent Casino Royale remake). You'll wonder why you didn't see a lot of this coming, and Burcell has mastered that regrettable knack of series authors that involves tying many things up a bit too neatly while leaving a couple of strategic holes for later volumes. I do have to give her points for not taking the easy way out with the romantic-triangle subplot (and this may be the only time I will ever praise an author for deliberately curtailing such a thing, but it was the right decision). Ultimately it's empty calories, but you'll have good time with it. ** ½

Wow, there is a bit of everything in here or so it seems. I read this in one day since I got involved and did not want to put it down.