The Bone Garden: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

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Key Phrases: The Bone Garden, Tess Gerritsen, Night Watch (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of this disappointing stand-alone thriller from bestseller Gerritsen (The Mephisto Club), 38-year-old divorcée Julia Hamill discovers a skeleton buried in the garden of the Boston house she's just moved into; the ring found with the remains was in fashion in the 1830s, the fractured bones suggest murder. Flashback to 1830: medical student Norris Marshall, an outcast among his wealthier classmates, meets Rose Connolly in a Boston maternity ward, where Rose's sister recently died of childbirth fever. When several gutted bodies turn up in deserted alleyways, Rose and Norris are the only ones to catch a glimpse of the killer, dubbed the West End Reaper. Norris, Rose and Norris's fellow student, Oliver Wendell Holmes, race to uncover the truth behind the slayings, which will remind many of Jack the Ripper's crimes. In the present, Julia is able to trace their progress with the help of a relative of the house's former owner. Unfortunately, neither the present nor the historical story line maintains the suspense necessary for a whodunit spanning several generations. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Medical examiner Maura Isles returns in another thriller that joins past and present. In the present, in the backyard of Julia Hamill's old Boston house, a long-buried body is unearthed. In 1830, long before the invention of the term serial killer, medical student Norris Marshall is accused of being a mass murderer. To dig himself out from under suspicion, Norris seeks help from a fellow student, one Oliver Wendell Holmes. Together they pursue the cold-hearted killer, while, in the present day, Julia Hamill tries to find out the identity of the body buried in her backyard. As her fans well know, this is not Gerritsen's first shot at combining the modern and the historical. Yet it reads as though it might be: it's clunky, with overly familiar plotting and an attempt at 1830s-era dialogue that's often painful to the ear. Incorporating real people into historical fiction is a well-worn device, and while the author succeeds in bringing Holmes vividly to life, she doesn't really do anything particularly special with him—a fictional character would have served the story just as well. This is a passable thriller—Gerritsen does generate a fair amount of suspense—but it fails to come together on any level beyond plot. Recommendable, finally, only because the author's many fans will want to read it. Pitt, David --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; Reprint edition (July 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345497619
• ISBN-13: 978-0345497611
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (122 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #117,142 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Riveting idea, stumbling end, September 23, 2007

By	Robert Schmidt (Honolulu, HI & Logan, UT USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Bone Garden: A Novel (Hardcover)

The Bone Garden starts off with that common mystery beginning... an old skeleton is found buried behind the newly purchased 130 year old house. The verdict? Murder so foul.

How did it get there? What was its story?

Author Tess Gerritsen goes back to the year 1830 in Boston, when medical students often were responsible for gathering up their own cadavers for study, and hand-washing was not linked in any manner with the spreading of disease, including, tragically, by physicians.

This story involves one such medical student (Norris Marshall) moonlighting as a grave-robber, his fellow student and friend Oliver Wendell Holmes, senior, and a young woman (Rose Connolly), who is desperately trying to protect her late sister's baby girl from the fate of the paupers' orphanage. In the meantime, a killer called the West End Reaper seems to collecting victims known by the three. Is one the Reaper? What connects these three, and the bones of the young woman found a century and a half later?

As it turns out, not much.

This is a really engaging story until, well, it ends. The crescendo is there, grabbing your attention, developing characters you love or hate, and raising the mystery to a level worthy of your interest. Then... poof. I can't tell you about the "poof" without giving away the mystery. Needless to say, it was deflating. Hence, the three stars.

Gerritsen weaves the mysteries of today and yesterday with skill, developing characters I empathized with. The broad links tightened as the novel came to a close, but the final knot was too contrived and abrupt.

A novel should never be harmed by its ending, and this one was.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars RIVETING..............!!!!, November 1, 2007

By	Dana Y. Bowles "DYB" (West Chester, PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Bone Garden: A Novel (Hardcover)

Newly divorced Julia Hamill has struck out on her own and moved into a quaint old house. Julia is comfortable in her new home, working in her garden; that is, until she uncovers a skeleton while digging amongst the weeds in her backyard. A mysterious phone call from an old gentleman who claims to know the history of her old home soon follows; and the quest begins between Julia and her elderly friend to uncover the long history and story behind the old house.
Moving back and forth between centuries (following the people behind the home's history), it is the 1800s, and young Rose has just lost her older sister to childbed fever. Now faced with caring for baby Meggy while avoiding her sister's abusive husband, Rose finds herself homeless and despondent. But she makes her way; Rose is a survivor, and finds her niece a wetnurse to stay with, while also finding herself a place to lay her head at night. Meanwhile, Boston is besieged by a series of horrific murders, and the killer is dubbed the West End Reaper. The only two people to witness the killer are Rose and Norris--a dashing young medical student who cared for her sister during her illness. The two join together in their collective desire to see the killer caught--and in their need to protect Rose's young niece Meggy, who seems to somehow be at the center of everything.
A novel chock full of suspense and romance, in addition to being rich in detailing the history of the medical profession overall. I loved this book and found it impossible to put down.


DYB

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb, November 19, 2007

By	Steven Sabin (Lake Tahoe, NV USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Bone Garden: A Novel (Hardcover)

I've read most of Gerritsen's medical thrillers, but avoided her more recent installment of books dealing with serial killers.

This book was a pleasant surprise, and in my opinion, one of Gerritsen's best. Don't let the title throw you. This isn't something from the supernatural horror genre, or a book dealing with someone who kills just for kicks.

When Julia Hamill purchases a 130-year old home, she realizes the fixer-upper is going to be an overwhelming project. Toiling in the overgrown garden, she unearths a skeleton that predates the house and which appears to be a murder victim. When a neighbor connects her to an old man with boxes of letters and newspaper clippings pertaining to the house, she finds herself mesmerized by the lives of Boston's richest - and poorest - historical inhabitants whose lives hold the key to the bones in her garden.

It was a truly enjoyable read, juxtaposing the 1830s with the present. Gerristen also draws heavily on her experience writing romance novels and gives us here equal parts thriller and love story.

The adrenaline junkies among us may feel mildly let down because the story resolves itself to a large degree before the final page and then sort of winds down gently rather than building to a furious crescendo. But unlike some reviewers, I found that to be a positive in this book, not a negative.

Frankly, of all Gerritsen's books I have read so far (and that has been about 5 or 6), this has been the most enjoyable.