I enjoyed Gerrtisen's "Body Double" so I was anxious to begin this book. I didn't enjoy this one even half as much - Antiquated autopsy scenes that were full of gore, for the sake of being gory and not lending to the story at all. A serial killer who-dunit where the author leaves no clues to a motive so there's no fun in the guessing. And a boring tie-in to present day that has zero relevance to the plot until the very predictable ending is revealed.
This is the very first audiobook that my husband would volunteer to let play while we were in a cross country road trip (he always thought it would be too distracting). Well, after he listened to it, he wanted more....
Julia Hamill has bought a house in rural Massachusetts. While she is digging in her yard to start a garden when she discovers the bones of a long-dead woman. The bones have been there for over 100 years. The bones start Julia on a journey to find out how the woman died and ended up in this grave in her backyard. Julia enlists the aid of Henry, an 89-year-old who has boxes of papers that once belonged to the previous owner of Julia's house. And so Julia discovers a mystery that dates back to the 1830s.
The story moves to Boston in 1830 which is an age of disease and pestilence. A time when doctors did not wash their hands between seeing patients so they unknowingly spread infections. This is the reason that many women at the time had excruiating deaths due childbed fever in the maternity wards. Norris Marshall is a a talented but poor student at Harvard Medical College. In order to pay for his education Norris steals bodies from the graveyards. Because of his seedy livelyhood, Norris becomes the prime suspect in a gruesome murder of a nurse. To prove his innocence, Norris must track down the only witness to have glimpsed the killer, Rose Connolly. They are joined by a young man named Oliver Wendell Holmes.
This really is a great story. I really enjoyed the story and the narrator. I don't think I was short changed because this is an abridged version of the original novel. After listening to it, my husband and I have read the rest of Tess Gerritsen's novels.
Julia Hamill has bought a house in rural Massachusetts. While she is digging in her yard to start a garden when she discovers the bones of a long-dead woman. The bones have been there for over 100 years. The bones start Julia on a journey to find out how the woman died and ended up in this grave in her backyard. Julia enlists the aid of Henry, an 89-year-old who has boxes of papers that once belonged to the previous owner of Julia's house. And so Julia discovers a mystery that dates back to the 1830s.
The story moves to Boston in 1830 which is an age of disease and pestilence. A time when doctors did not wash their hands between seeing patients so they unknowingly spread infections. This is the reason that many women at the time had excruiating deaths due childbed fever in the maternity wards. Norris Marshall is a a talented but poor student at Harvard Medical College. In order to pay for his education Norris steals bodies from the graveyards. Because of his seedy livelyhood, Norris becomes the prime suspect in a gruesome murder of a nurse. To prove his innocence, Norris must track down the only witness to have glimpsed the killer, Rose Connolly. They are joined by a young man named Oliver Wendell Holmes.
This really is a great story. I really enjoyed the story and the narrator. I don't think I was short changed because this is an abridged version of the original novel. After listening to it, my husband and I have read the rest of Tess Gerritsen's novels.
This is a compelling mystery that jumps back and forth between the present and the past. The murders are violent and gruesome. There's a very realistic depiction of childbirth in the days of childbed fever, descriptions of human dissection by medical students, and a subtle overlay of reincarnation. It's not my personal preference, but if you like realistic descriptions of this sort, it's very good at that.
What an interesting story. Set in present day with flashbacks to a different time. I enjoyed the story and the narrator. The was my first Tess Gerritsen book, after listening to it I went on to read the rest of her novels.
This is one of Tess Gerritsen best novels ever. I simply could not put it down. I highly recommend The Bone Garden. I could tell that Tess put in a lot of research in writing this book.
