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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780399155147
ISBN number: 0399155147
Label: Putnam Adult
Manufacturer: Putnam Adult
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 352
Printing Date: December 30, 2008
Publishing house: Putnam Adult
Age index: Young Adult
Release Date: December 30, 2008
Sale Popularity Level: 10949
Studio: Putnam Adult
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
A stunning stand-alone novel from the national-bestselling author who “has raised the standard for psychological thrillers” (Chicago Tribune).
Carol O’Connell’s most recent Mallory novel, Find Me, was one of the most highly praised suspense novels of the year. “A terrific find: a tightly wrapped, expert combination of suspense, mystery and show-stopping character” (Janet Maslin of The New York Times); “yet another example of the spot-on talents of one of America’s finest writers of mysteries” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). In Bone by Bone, however, she may have written her most unforgettable novel yet.
In the northern California town of Coventry, two teenage brothers go into the woods one day, but only one comes back. No one knows what happened to the younger brother, Josh, until twenty years later, when the older brother, Oren, now an ex-investigator for the Army CID, returns to Coventry for the very first time in many years. His very first morning back, he hears a thump on the front porch. Lying in front of the door is a human jawbone, the teeth still intact. And it is not the very first such object, his father tells him. Other remains have been left there as well. Josh is coming home . . . bone by bone.
Using all his investigative skills, Oren sets out to solve the mystery of his brother’s murder, but Coventry is a town full of secrets and secret-keepers: the housekeeper with the fugitive past, the deputy with the old grudge, the reclusive ex-cop from L.A., the woman with the title of town monster, and, not least of all, Oren himself. But the greatest secret of all belonged to his brother, and it is only by unraveling it that Oren can begin to discover the truth that has haunted them all for twenty years.
Written with the rich prose, resonant characters, and knife-edge suspense that have won the author so many fans, Bone by Bone is further proof that “O’Connell is one of the most poetic yet tough-minded writers of the genre” (San Francisco Chronicle).
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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Oren Hobbs returns to town twenty years after his teenage brother is killed. Someone has been returning the boy's body to his father bone by bone. Since the murdered boy was a precocious photographer with a penchant for capturing telling moments that reveal the inner lives of his subjects, it's no surprise that the unraveling of the mystery requires the unraveling of the town's secrets.
Although the premise is promising, I found this book unusually tedious for a commercial mystery. The pace was plodding, the characters indistinguishable from one another, the plot flat. I'm sorry to say that it was a disappointment for me.
(I reviewed this book as part of Amazon's Vine program, where readers are provided advance copies of selected books in return for an implicit agreement to review them.)
Rated by buyers 
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I couldn't finish this story. The author describes a small town with many secrets, people who are cruel, and people who are guilty of past crimes. I simply could not summon enough interest in the story, although I soldiered on for 200 pages. In those pages I encountered some improbable characters, stilted dialogue, and wholly unrealistic medical facts. I never felt the suspense that the cover review promised.
I finally put the book down because I had no emotional involvement with the characters. The people didn't seem real enough for me to care about. Perhaps this is my own fault. O'Connell seems like a fairly competent writer in other respects. I tried, but I could not immerse myself in the time and place of the narrative. Some novels are worthwhile even though they are difficult to read, but popular mysteries usually offer little more than enjoyment. If you aren't enjoying this kind of book, you can always pull another one from the shelf.
Rated by buyers 
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In Bone By Bone, Carol O' Connell blends the eccentricities of a small town with a murder mystery that keeps you guessing until the very end. Beautifully written, it's the story of a man named Oren, who returns to his home town in California after working in the Army's CID (Criminal Investigations), after his father's housekeeper, the omniscient Hannah, sends him a cryptic letter. But he returns to find a horrible scenario is playing out at his father's home- someone is leaving the bones of his younger brother, Josh, on the front porch. One bone at a time. The cast of characters in this novel is reminiscent of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," with a large, richly drawn out cast of eccentrics. The only character I wish we'd had more information on is Oren himself.
The small town is full of secrets, and people who keep them for various reasons. In a town where everyone knows everyone else's business, this is a crime that has gone unsolved for twenty years. But why? Is it really a difficult mystery, or has an entire town covered up the murder of a young man?
Even when you're sure you know who the guilty party is, you're likely to be wrong. This was a beautifully written mystery, more of a high brow who dunnit, and I'm looking forward to her subsequent book!
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