Customer Reviews

Bones of Contention

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Cleon Dobbs has had three wives and a zillion unwanted offspring. However, when he learns he is dying from cancer, he decides to bring the entire brood including a "niece" Dinah Pelerin together at a remote run down Northern Territory, Australian lodge while he draws up his last will one paragraph at a time.

However, the final hurrah turns nasty when a journalist who knows about Cleon is murdered followed by Cleon's doctor who was here to help him commit suicide. His named heirs and offended cut outs resent he was not the corpse. Cleon goes too far when he leaves to Dinah his two Winslow Homer watercolors. Although she just wants to learn more about her father, she thinks something is not right about the paintings. When another heir arrives claiming to be a long lost son, the pot boils over as payback has become the prime Bones of Contention, but by whom.

This is a terrific Australian family mystery filled with deadly twists including a great climax. The setting and eccentric cast refresh the family feud inheritance theme as readers will relish the Down Under manipulations of Cleon while wondering what next will happen amidst the dysfunctional who compete for a paragraph.

Harriet Klausner

A spellbinding mystery with surprises galore. Fantastic use of language--sent me to the dictionary several times. Thanks for adding a great vocabularic work-out to a captivating mystery. I'm looking forward to Bet Your Bones.

I started reading this book Monday and finsihed Wedn at lunch. I just could NOT put it down!
I want to know more! Im really looking forward to a sequel. I think we will learn more about Dinahs mother, ex and the mysterious Seth... and you know what they say? What happens in Panama, stays in Panama!

This story reads like a whodunit murder mystery reminiscent of the television series, Murder She Wrote sprinkled with a dash of Agatha Christie and mixed with a pinch of Perry Mason. The humor is superb and the insertion of the main character's thoughts about what would be scribed on her headstone is insightful and hilarious. If you're a fan of those series, then this will be an enjoyable, fun read for you. I loved the lingo and character development. The cast is vast, but each is unique and easily followed. To make this a classic murrrddahhh all it needs is a storm followed by a dead phone line and power outage. The story might seem a bit unbelievable, but given the setting, the land of "Oz," it supplies a nice thematic quality and makes it easy to swallow. Strange things happen in strange lands. Isn't that part of the mystique?

I cut out half of the `synopsis' because by the time a person reads it, they probably don't need to read the book. It gives too much away. The murder on the island is a cloak used to cast off the real happenings and is neatly tied in towards the end for relevancy, but is not the focal point and because of this, becomes anti-climax. It can't hold the weight it's originally given. There are several other irrelevant details provided along the way for back story or plot diversion. Dinah should lose the boyfriend in the beginning, middle and mentioning at the end. He is useless from the get go and a detail that went no where and has little impact on the overall outcome of the story. At times, the main character seems silly or ridiculous, even childlike. She has too much baggage for one female role on the move to tote.

3 stars is a good rating from me. It's means I liked it. I found it enjoyable and entertaining and would recommend it friends and family with similar interests.

A well written and intriguing murder-mystery set in Australia, Bones of Contention is an interesting read. The characters are colorful, but are not developed to their full potential. There are a couple of loose ends in Dinah's recent past which would add a sense of completion if they could be tidied up.

Set in the uncommon locale of the Northern Territory in Australia, the setting is austere and the reader is presented with mysterious incongruities from the very beginning. After receiving the call from her half-brother that "Uncle" Cleon (actually her mother's former husband) has cancer and has decided to die on his own terms via assisted suicide, Dinah uproots her entire life, including lousy job and cheating boyfriend, to travel to Australia. A colorful local inserts himself into her trip and her family's crisis at the airport, and reappears as things at the lodge get more and more dicey.

Dinah's family is hodge-podge of children coming from Cleon's two ex-wives and current wife, and she really is an outsider, having a different father, and being born after her mother divorced Cleon. To Dinah, the others all appear to be walking the fine line between legal and illegal activities, and of course, they have as many skeletons in their closets as she does. The twists and turns their hidden pasts provide as Dinah attempts to sort out the many contradictions are fascinating, but the more she digs, the more it appears that someone else is playing puppet-master.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the NetGalley book review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 [...] : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

I'm not going to bother with a synopsis, there's enough of those to give you the gist.

BONES OF CONTENTION is undoubtedly one of the best books I've read this year. Instead of going on ad nauseum, which I could, I'll try to be concise.
1.Excellently plotted and executed mystery.
2.Vibrant, memorable, well fleshed characters. Adored Jacko.
3.Intelligent and interesting descriptive writing.
4.Witty, occasionally snarky (loved it) dialog.
5.A devilish mess of a heroine, in the Southern sense of the word mess, Dinah is pure delight.
6. Overall, just plain good writing.

I sussed out pieces of the puzzle but not all and wasn't expecting the way it ended. Those are good things in my book. BONES OF CONTENTION is a definite keeper. I'm in a tizzy of anticipation awaiting Dinah's next adventure. I intend to be one of the first in line to join her. Ms. Matthews is on my auto-buy list and I truly hope she writes quickly.

I received this book via NetGalley

I loved reading this book. Dinah Pelerin is a smart, sharp-tongued (think Kate from Taming of the Shrew, or Kate Hepburn), and thoroughly enjoyable protagonist, who uncovers her dysfunctional family's (a rough cross between the Corleones and the Osbornes) darkest secrets while attending a family get-together in remote Australia. The travelogue alone is worth the read, but the memorable characters, fast-paced dialogue - filled with Australian color - and a plot that keeps you guessing complete the package. I can't wait for the sequel.

Full disclosure: the author of this new mystery series, Jeanne Matthews, is a friend. I was delighted to learn that her sleuth, Dinah Perelin, has the same Southern charm, sharp mind, and wry sense of humor as her creator.

Dinah Pelerin is a budding anthropologist with a deep interest in the myths and legends of ancient cultures. Her first adventure, Bones of Contention, takes her down under, where Dinah is fascinated with the Aboriginals' idea of "song lines," loosely defined as "footprints, the trails of the ancestors who created the land. . . . Their songs brought the land into existence and each geographical feature retains their spiritual essence and perpetuates it."

The song lines of Dinah's own Georgia family shape the plot of this story. It is not a happy family. Relatives have gathered to say goodbye to their wealthy, dying patriarch, Cleon, the man who acted in loco parentis as Dinah's father because her own father died when she was little. A few years ago, Cleon resettled in Australia, and he picked an odd, inconvenient, and uncomfortable place to die: a moldering lodge ten miles down a dirt road in a remote part of the Top End. It is a locale where only the wine and cocktail glasses sparkle.

Each family member has his or her own agenda and secrets, but all keep a sharp eye on the constantly changing clauses of Cleon's will. Dinah's main goal is less mercenary: to finally learn the truth about her late father's character--was he a good man or a scoundrel? When a member of the house party dies in a suspicious manner, Dinah must uncover the real murderer to protect an innocent person.

The plot and setting might be grim, but the book crackles with humor because of the snappy dialogue and Dinah's spunky personality and ability to laugh at herself. There are also moments of poignancy: "She blew smoke rings like little white lassos around the stars and watched the smoke evanesce. . . . She couldn't hold onto the people she loved anymore than she could hold on to a star."

By the end of the story, Dinah almost, but not completely, untangles the song lines of her own family. The reader looks forward to Dinah's next adventure, her next chance to extract wisdom so ancient it has been thinned to myth.