Bones

Book info: Bones (Hardcover, 561 pages – Wheeler Pub Inc, 1999) – Wheeler Pub Inc, 1999. Language: Eng.

What Became of Julia Sayre?Every once in a while you read a book that reminds you why you started reading in the first place. You wanted excitement, a setting different from your own world, and interesting new people. And you wanted them written large and you wanted each element to be intense .Bones is the most exciting novel I've read all year. It's got Sierra Nevada mountains for a setting. And it's got a serial killer who is genuinely interesting in a subhuman manner. The setup is straightforward. Our friend the serial killer wants to make a deal with the fuzz -- he'll show them where a long-sought body is buried if they agree not to seek the death penalty when he turns himself in. But who would make a deal with a serial killer?Heroine Irene Kelly, who has been following the body search from the beginning, gets entangled in her own story and -- for the later chapters of the book -- goes mano a mano with the killer in the deadly mountains.The very gifted science fiction writer Poul Anderson once noted that the best writers always use all of their senses in describing a scene. Burke is especially good at this. Given her use of shifting viewpoints, she's able to give you the sights, sounds, smells, and dread of a mountain battle -- both with a dangerous human being and an equally dangerous mountain terrain.Bones is nonstop from page one. Be kind and buy two copies, one for yourself, of course, and one for your best friend. It's that good. —Ed Gorman