Uneasy Relations (A Gideon Oliver Mystery) (Hardcover)

by Aaron Elkins (Author)
Key Phrases: skeleton detective, Aaron Elkins, Europa Point, Gibraltar Woman (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
“Elkins is a master.”
—Dallas Morning News



Product Description
The Edgar® Award-winning author of Little Tiny Teeth returns with his professor of forensics, Gideon Oliver, a.k.a. the Skeleton Detective.

“No one does it better than Aaron Elkins,”( San Diego Union-Tribune )–– and this time, Gideon Oliver will be up on the Rock of Gibraltar, where he’ll inspect his oldest bones yet. But a killer’s loose…

Around 25,000 years ago, did the Neanderthal live peacefully with his smarter, handsomer cousin, the Homo sapiens? The answer, recently found in the Rock of Gibraltar, left everyone speechless…

Buried ceremoniously, high in a cave, lies the skeleton of a human woman, clutching the skeleton of a part-human, part-Neanderthal child. Fascinated, Professor Oliver jumps at the chance to attend a conference near there. But two deaths, possibly murders, have rocked Gibraltar. As Oliver tries to piece things together, he’s about to fall for some deadly tricks. After all, unlike the Gibraltar Boy, he’s only human…

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Hardcover; 1 edition (July 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425221768
• ISBN-13: 978-0425221761
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #63,822 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #2 in

  Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Authors, A-Z > ( E ) > Elkins, Aaron

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another clever little gem, July 1, 2008

By	Jonathan A. Turner (Nashua, NH United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It's becoming a tradition. Every year Aaron Elkins publishes a new Gideon Oliver mystery. Every year I review it, give it four or five stars, and point out that Elkins is the best writer of classical mysteries working today.

Well, here we go again.

_Uneasy Relations_ is a beautifully-crafted, intelligent, witty, and fascinating mystery in the tradition of Doyle, Christie, Sayers, and Stout. It's practically a textbook example. Last year's _Little Tiny Teeth_, while also excellent, incorporated some thriller elements. _Uneasy Relations_ plays it straight: detective, body, limited circle of suspects, clues, deductions, revelation.

In other words, bliss. That is, unless you're looking for gunshots and car chases and beatings, in which case, move along; there's nothing to see here.

Elkins keeps the narrative moving, giving nothing away before its time, always keeping his hero in the thick of things, constantly dangling little revelations in front of the reader. This is a good book in which to match wits with the detective. Gideon's forensic knowledge is well-displayed, and it's important to the plot, but logic and attention to detail are no less so.

It's talky, sure, but that's traditional. And it's *good* talk, both funny and fascinating. If Gideon were real, I'd want to take a course from him--not to mention reading his book. (Plus I'd go mano-a-mano with him in Trivial Pursuit.) The group of suspects is just the right size, and Elkins's usual light-but-deft characterizations made it easy for me to remember them all.

In fact, the only nit I have to pick is that I wish _Uneasy Relations_ had been longer. A red herring or two ... a false solution ... maybe a timetable, it's hard to go wrong with an elaborate timetable ... In other words, my beef is really that Aaron Elkins doesn't write enough. I picked up _Uneasy Relations_ on Friday evening and was done two hours later. Having to wait a year for the next one is hard on a man.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gideon Oliver at the top of his form! As is the Author., July 23, 2008

By	andiesenji (SoCal,USA) - See all my reviews

Uneasy Relations is a superb blending of paleoanthropology and mystery fiction. Aaron Elkins gets better and better with each glimpse into the life of Gideon Oliver and Julie. Even the incidental characters are filled out and make an interesting contribution to the whole, even when deceased prior to the events of the present.
I have long been a fan of popular (as opposed to true scientific) writing about the development of early man (or woman) and apparently am not alone as is indicated by the ongoing popularity of the various programs on Discovery, National Geographic, Science and etc., channels. Most make it interesting but there is still something lacking.
Aaron Elkins makes it FUN!
I ordered the book from Amazon and have been anticipating the reading of it for a couple of weeks but other things kept getting in the way. Today was a free day and so I picked up the book at eight this morning and finished it just before three. It was difficult to put down for even brief breaks.
When I say the title speaks to me, I mean just that. In recent years I have become interested in DNA genealogy and some interesting things have come to light and I wish someone would write mysteries of the same caliber in that field.
Well done, Aaron Elkins! Now how long is it till the next one? I can hardly wait.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fine forensic tale, July 2, 2008

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Physical anthropologist and homicide solver Gideon Oliver and his wife are attending the annual International Paleoanthropological Society Conference held in Gibraltar. Oliver, known as the Skelton Detective, is going to celebrate the discovery of the First family, a Homo sapiens mother holding her hybrid Neanderthal son. This find proved that the two humanoid species interacted, mated and had offspring.

Although he never worked at the site, Oliver examined the bones of the Gibraltar woman and her son. While on the Rock, only luck saves him from being killed. He thinks someone deliberately pushed him, but is not fully sure if it happened or it was his imagination.. When he gets set to lecture, only the warning of a fellow scientist keeps him from being electrocuted. He thinks the attempts on his life are linked to a story planted by his editor in the newspaper about a revelation he will make. When it is discovered another group member Sheila Chin was not killed in a cave in but murdered also, Oliver concludes someone working the site is willing to commit two years ago but was murdered Oliver decides to start his investigation.

In some ways Oliver will remind forensic fans of Scarpetta as he uses the latest scientific techniques and some intuition to solve homicides. In this tale, Aaron Elkins makes it easy for the lay reader to understand the science behind physical anthropology and the pressure the scholars are under to discover something. The whodunit is entertaining as the suspects are professionally gathered from around the world sharing the same motive and opportunity. Fans will appreciate the Bone Detective as he searches amidst UNEASY RELATIONS to find a killer.

Harriet Klausner