Customer Reviews

Written in Bone

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Simon Beckett's second thriller, "Written in Bone," brings back forensic anthropologist David Hunter, an intelligent, dedicated, and compassionate scientist who takes his job so seriously that his girlfriend is rapidly becoming exasperated with him. Since the deaths of his wife and child, Hunter has become obsessed with giving each victim entrusted to his care an identity and a measure of justice. This time, Hunter is sent to a secluded island named Runa, in the Outer Hebrides. His task is to examine an unidentified body that was left partially burned in an undamaged cottage. Was the death an accident, suicide, or murder? If it was murder, why was the body exposed for anyone to find? Assisting Hunter are a drunken and incompetent police sergeant, a rookie constable, and a retired detective inspector. Hunter is chagrined when a horrific storm blows through Runa, cutting the island off from the mainland; no reinforcements will be arriving anytime soon.

"Written in Bone" follows the conventions of a "closed island" mystery. The hero is left to his own devices, trying to maintain control of a rapidly deteriorating situation. Not only is it impossible for Hunter to get outside help, but the weather is so wretched that it is difficult to preserve the remains for examination. There is no well-equipped morgue or laboratory on Runa, and Hunter is reduced to using freezer bags for storage of body parts. In spite of the primitive conditions that prevail, Hunter is resourceful enough to draw logical conclusions from the available evidence.

The strongest aspects of the book are its beautifully depicted setting and vivid characters. Beckett captures the wild ferocity of the storm that buffets this remote and lonely place; the towering waves and gale force winds crash against the shore, threatening to capsize the boats moored in the harbor. Against this forbidding backdrop, Beckett tells a gothic tale of jealousy, rage, and perverted sexuality. Among the large cast are Maggie Cassidy, an aggressive reporter with a nose for a juicy story; Andrew Brody, a retired police officer who still retains some of his old skills; Ellen McLeod, a hotel owner and devoted single mother; Andrew and Grace Strachan, a wealthy couple with a proprietary interest in keeping the island economically solvent; and the alcoholic Sergeant Fraser, who finds himself way out of his league when it comes to investigating violent crimes.

For the most part, "Written in Bone" is engrossing and suspenseful. The forensic details are grisly but compelling, and Beckett is willing to kill off likeable characters, which many authors avoid at all costs. The novel's most egregious flaw is its tangled and wildly implausible ending. There is quite enough going on without adding extraneous plot elements that are a bit too self-consciously clever. Still, "Written in Bone" has enough entertainment value to keep readers turning pages furiously, eager to see how the mystery will ultimately play out.

Forensic anthropologist Dr David Hunter is called on to look into a `fire death' on Runa, a remote Outer Hebridean island. It isn't immediately clear whether the death is suspicious or accidental, but something tells Dr Hunter that there is more to this death than seems immediately apparent.

Hampered by foul weather, a lack of equipment and remoteness from specialist assistance, Dr Hunter attempts to find the answers. The remote community itself has some deep, dark secrets and the more information Dr Hunter uncovers, the more complex the investigation becomes. It soon becomes clear that there is a murderer on the island and, as Runa becomes completely cut off from the outside world, suspense builds as the body count increases.

This is the second of Simon Beckett's mysteries to feature Dr David Hunter. I've not yet read the first, but I certainly will be.

Highly recommended.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

"Given the right temperature, everything burns. Wood. Clothing. People.
At 250º Celsius, flesh will ignite. Skin blackens and splits. The subcutaneous fat starts to liquefy, like grease in a hot pan. Fuelled by it, the body starts to burn. Arms and legs catch first, acting as kindling to the greater mass of the torso. Tendons and muscle fibres contract, causing the burning limbs to move in an obscene parody of life. Last to go are the organs. Cocooned in moistness, they often remain even after the rest of the soft tissue has been consumed.
But bone is, quite literally, a different matter."


Beckett certainly knows how to draw the reader in from the first page.
He never reduces himself to writing gore, instead he fascinates us with fact.

I enjoyed the story, the characters and the setting. Beckett's descriptions of the remote island and the weather conditions conjur up a wonderfully realistic image and an ideal setting for a thriller.

Throw in some red herrings and a couple of twists and he's cracked it again. Not only that but we get an excellent cliff hanger too!!

Recommended!!

Off the west coast of Scotland there are a number of desolate islands, the Hebrides. On one of them, Runa, a charred body is reported--was it an accident or is it a suspicious death? Forensic anthropologist Dr. David Hunter is asked to go there to determine the circumstances of the death. The body is little more than ashes, with fragments of bone, burned beyond recognition while no damage was done by the fire to the structure enclosing it.

The working theory was a case of spontaneous combustion, until Dr. Hunter finds evidence that it was no accident, leading to a murder inquiry. Obviously in the small self-contained community lurks a murderer. But a raging storm prevents a full-blown police contingent from being sent from the mainland. Power and communications cut are off making matters worse.

This is a fascinating tale with almost a thrill a page. The conclusion is so surprising that the reader has to scratch his or her head in near disbelief. Tautly written, the book is highly recommended.

The Scottish police ask forensic anthropologist Dr. David Hunter to assist their investigation into a fiery death on Runa, a remote Hebridean island, as they have no expert available to look at the crime scene at this time. All that remains of the victim besides ash and bone are feet and one hand; the shack where the person died has no signs of a fire.

Dr. Hunter, Police Sergeant Fraser, and Constable Duncan travel to Runa, a small island community whose residents live off the ocean and visiting tourists. However, Hunter and the two cops accompanying him find the island inhospitable when storms batter Runa and communications to the mainland are completely cut off. Retired chief inspector Brody, who found the first corpse, assists the outsiders while the death count rises yet the islanders refuse to cooperate with the mainlanders.

Although the motive for the murder seems pathetic, Simon Beckett provides a terrific atmospheric police procedural. The story line is fast-paced with Hunter and his cohorts struggling to gain cooperation from the locals even with one of them assisting the inquiry. Filled with twists, it is us vs. them attitude that makes for a wonderful deep whodunit.

Harriet Klausner

This is a forensic suspense/mystery/thriller that has more than a few twists and turns to it, even up to the bitter (or sweet,depending on how you look at it) end. CSI, Reichs, Cornwell, etc fans will love it. I
can't say I was at the EDGE of my seat, but I was way past the middle of it and turning pages fast....

Premise: a forensic anthropologist gets called out to a remote British island to investigate a suspitious death. A storm, a fire and more than one body keephim there as he risks his life to figure out just who is killing who...and who will be next. Highly atmospheric.

Excellent exceptionally atmospheric thriller. This definitely deserves best-seller status. May Simon Beckett give us many more David Hunter books!

I hesitate to use the word formulaic in reference to only the second book in a series, but having read both the first and second Dr. David Hunter mysteries in a row, I found some striking similarities, which I won't detail so as to avoid a spoiler. I think this series shows real potential, if Mr. Beckett can avoid the trap of having his hero in so many deadly situations in one short span of time - it strains credulity and makes the series that much harder to sustain. (Who can believe one character can withstand so much?) I enjoy this type of book as a character study as much as anything else, and these last minute plot twists and turns can be distracting. I liked the book a lot - I gave it four stars - but I'm hoping Mr. Beckett decides not to go quite so over-the-top in his plotting for his next book.

With WRITTEN IN BONE, a solid sequel to his debut novel THE CHEMISTRY OF DEATH, Author Simon Beckett continues to effectively cash in on his real life anthropological experience working with Bill Bass of Tennessee's world famous Body Farm. Unlike many of his competitors in the crowded medical thriller genre who have concentrated on thrill and suspense at the expense of science and medicine, Beckett writes a solid forensic procedural with plenty of interesting details on such minutiae as the rate of decay of human bodies under a variety of conditions, the nature of pre- and post-mortem wounds and the tiny differences between slashing and stabbing wounds and their effects on soft tissue and bones that is superbly balanced with the bloody bits and the actual action. Nor has he forgotten about suspense, twists, turns, red herrings and surprise endings!

Forensic anthropologist David Hunter has been dispatched to Runa, a God-forsaken barren spit of land in the remote Outer Hebrides in the frigid Atlantic north of Scotland, to investigate a death so bizarre that the first cause coming to everyone's mind is spontaneous human combustion. When a ferocious Arctic storm eliminates all communication with the mainland and clues finally surface that prove the death was in fact murder, the game, as Sherlock Holmes would have said, was definitely afoot! Hunter, cut off from any possible assistance from his police colleagues in Britain and Scotland, is forced to investigate the murder with the only assistance available on the island - Neil Fraser, an unhappy, angry officer who wants nothing more than to stay under the radar until his retirement quietly drinking his way to oblivion and Andrew Brody, an embittered former investigator who retired to the seclusion of Runa after the mysterious unsolved disappearance of his daughter many years earlier.

WRITTEN IN BONE is most definitely NOT a cozy mystery in the style of Agatha Christie. That said, the resemblance to AND THEN THERE WAS NONE is unmistakable as the body count on the foul weather-locked island mounts and the only possible suspects are the remaining inhabitants who are looking over their shoulders with growing fear and suspicion. But no potential reader should get the mistaken impression that I'm suggesting WRITTEN IN BONE is derivative. Absolutely not! The characterization is superb, the relationships are as edgy, angsty and as dark as any thriller available today, the dialogue is natural and credible, the twists and turns are devious and ... oh my goodness ... that ending out of left field will leave every reader with a smile knowing that entry #3 in the David Hunter series is just around the corner.

Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

David Hunter is a forensic anthropologist whose expertise is requested in Scotland when a woman's body is found burned by what appears to be spontaneous human combustion. On closer examination, Hunter determines otherwise. But with a storm brewing on this remote island and no means of communication, the killer does everything he can to protect his secrets and wait until it is safe to leave the island. An interesting read although there were more supposed accidents and bodies than on Jessica Fletcher's Cabot Cove. Echoes from the Grave (A Sam Casey Mystery)