Old Bones

Old Bones : A Gideon Oliver Mystery Aaron Elkins Date: 01 October, 1988   —   used only   —   Book product page Rating:

Fiction, Mystery

An old man dies, trapped by the tides at Mont St. Michel (the fastest tides in the world; they approach at a fast run across nearly fifty miles of plains.) His family, gathered for unrelated reasons, decide to allow a cellar repair to proceed - and the workmen turn up a skeleton. Stranger still, there is also an SS uniform, one that is the wrong size for the body, and the body is showing near-certain signs of being related to the family...

Gideon Oliver, at a nearby conference, is called in to help identify the bones. In his presence, another member of the family is poisoned, and now he has to work fast, because it seems as though grudges - and secrets - from World War II are leading to current deaths. And that the old man may have been murdered in an almost ingenious fashion.

This is indeed a classic mystery, full of too many suspects, misidentification, motives galore, and twists and turns and close escapes. It's also got an aphorism-spouting uncle with an astounding cast of "relatives" in Texas, last minute revelations, and true love thrown in to boot. And somehow it all seems perfectly natural. This one is worth buying - if you can find it.