BONE GARDEN by Tess Gerritsen

Publisher Ballantine Books
Date published September 2007
ISBN 978-0345-49760-4
Romantic Suspense
Mass Market Paperback
Reviewed by Gina




Doing something for herself after the demise of her marriage, Julia Hamill has bought herself a house. One she believes will nourish her and return her to wholeness. She is shocked when, while digging in her garden, she comes upon a skull. Medical examiner Maura Isles is called to the scene, but her skills are not needed as this is a very old skull, one that holds no crime to be solved.

Or is there a crime?

In a hospital in 1830, seventeen year old Rose Connolly sits vigil by her sister Aurnia’s side. With pregnant women dying all around Aurnia, Rose holds firm to the hope that her sister’s pregnancy will pass more smoothly—that the baby she calls Meggie and Aurnia will live. Rose has only half her wish granted and shortly after the baby named Margaret is born, Aurnia passes to her eternal rest. With Aurnia’s death, Rose is thrust into a vortex of mystery and deceit that spins until the day Julia unearths the mystifying skull in her backyard.

Rose soon finds herself befriended by medical student, Norris Marshall, a poor farmer who, unlike his more privileged classmates, truly seeks to heal. Not that his classmates who include the worthy Oliver Wendell Holmes do not wish to be doctors in the true sense; it is just that they know nothing of the struggle to survive. Shortly after Aurnia’s death the horrific combination of resurrectionists and West End Reaper sends Rose with her precious niece on the run. With Norris her only friend and ally, she manages to elude those that would kill little Meggie. Deception and hidden agendas meet her at every turn with those behind the machinations at the highest levels of Boston society.

As Rose’s story unfolds in the past, Julia must decide if the eccentric elderly man who calls her to his side is a friend or foe.

THE BONE GARDEN is another fascinating turn in Tess Gerritsen’s writing journey. Drawing on her amazingly creative ability to create unexpected twists and turns in a story, this book travels ever further down that path with the telling of two intertwined tales in one. There are so many layers to this story that I needed to sit with it a few days after the last page was read to truly take in all of the nuances of the story. Even at that, given Ms. Gerritsen’s talent for weaving a tale, I know that in the days to come more of those fine distinctions will surface.