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Present day: Julia Hamill has made a horrifying discovery on the grounds of her new home in rural Massachusetts: a skull buried in the rocky soil--human, female, and, according to the trained eye of Boston medical examiner Maura Isles, scarred with the unmistakable marks of murder. Boston, 1830: In order to pay for his education, medical student Norris Marshall has joined the ranks of local "resurrectionists"--those who plunder graveyards and harvest the dead for sale on the black market. But when a distinguished doctor is found murdered and mutilated on university grounds, Norris finds that trafficking in the illicit cadaver trade has made him a prime suspect.… (more)
This was an excellent thriller that combined the present day with events in 1830. Julia Hamill is recently divorced and has purchased a fixer-upper from 1880 despite objections from her sister. When digging in the yard to restore some gardens, Julia discovers a skull. Both the police and forensic anthropologists are called when it is determined that the body dates from the sometime around the 1830s.
Julia wants to learn about this forgotten woman and is pleased when a relative of the former owner offers to let her dig through the many, many boxes of stuff he removed from the house when the former owner died at age 92.
Among the stuff in the boxes are some letters from Oliver Wendell Holmes which tell the story of those long ago events of 1830.
The second part of the book tells the story of a poor Irish girl, a poor farmer lad who yearns to be a doctor, and the West End Ripper. Rose watches her sister Aurnia die in the charity ward of a Boston hospital after giving birth to a daughter. Norris Marshall is a medical student who was there when his supervisor examined the sister. Rose is determined to care for the child despite the fact the Aurnia's abusive husband has tried to give her away.
Then the deaths start, and rumors start of an unseen but frightening killer haunting the hospital. Rose and her infant niece seem to be _targets of this killer.
I really enjoyed the historical detail in this story. I also liked Julia who gains courage to take her own chance for love after learning Rose's story. ( )
(2007)Another very good novel by Gerritsen, although this is not technically a Rizzoli & Isles. Isles does make a cameo, but this is about a present day woman who finds a woman buried in her back yard that leads to an apparent serial murderer in the 1830s. Oliver Wendell Holmes is a medical student that also becomes in the murders when he helps one of his classmates in trying to prove that the killer is not him. Leads to a woman who is trying to prevent the discovery that her brother has fathered two heirs to their fortune.KIRKUS REVIEWAn old mystery is crossed with a modern story in the latest from Gerritsen (The Mephisto Club, 2006, etc.).Julia Hamill, newly divorced and still smarting, purchases an old house outside Boston. Determined to dig a garden, she instead finds the bones of a long-dead woman¥the apparent victim of murderÂ¥which starts her on a journey to ferret out the story behind her death. Julia connects with Henry, a no-nonsense 89-year-old with boxes of documents that once belonged to the now-deceased previous owner of Julia's home. The two discover a mystery dating back to the 1830s. At the heart of it is a baby named Meggie, born to the beautiful but doomed Irish chambermaid, Aurnia. Married to a man who cares nothing for her, Aurnia lays dying in a maternity ward with her sister, Rose, at her side. Rose, a spirited 17-year-old, takes Meggie to protect her from Aurnia's husband, but soon finds herself the _target of a bizarre manhunt. Someone is after the childÂ¥and Rose, as well, because she witnessed a horrifying murder. The body count piles up as Rose struggles to remain free of those who would take Meggie from her. Meanwhile, a young medical student becomes the chief suspect of the West End Reaper killings when he stumbles onto another terrible homicide. Although he fights the prospect, eventually he and Rose join forces to solve the murders and protect the baby at the heart of the mysterious deaths.Readers with delicate stomachs may find Gerritsen's graphic descriptions of corpse dissection hard to take, but the story, which digs up a dark Boston of times long past, entices readers to keep turning pages long after their bedtimes.
Tess Gerrittsen is my new favorite mystery author. This novel follows two time periods and a budding modern era romance. Old skeletal remains are found in a garden which opens up an interesting mystery in Victorian Boston. Diverse characters and fear of a killer in oldBoston made this an engaging book. ( )
Tess Gerritsen is just as creepy as I remember her. "The Bone Garden" satisfied my need to read medical and historical fiction at the same time--a double win. Narrator Susan Denake has just the right tone. I enjoyed it. ( )
Present day: Julia Hamill has made a horrifying discovery on the grounds of her new home in rural Massachusetts: a skull buried in the rocky soil--human, female, and, according to the trained eye of Boston medical examiner Maura Isles, scarred with the unmistakable marks of murder. Boston, 1830: In order to pay for his education, medical student Norris Marshall has joined the ranks of local "resurrectionists"--those who plunder graveyards and harvest the dead for sale on the black market. But when a distinguished doctor is found murdered and mutilated on university grounds, Norris finds that trafficking in the illicit cadaver trade has made him a prime suspect.
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A gruesome secret is about to be unearthed ...When a human skull is dug up in a garden near Boston, Dr Maura Isles is called in to investigate. She quickly discovers that the skeleton - that of a young woman - has been buried for over a hundred years. But who was the young woman? And how did she die? It is the 1830s, and an impoverished medical student, Norris Marshall, is forced to procure corpses in order to further his studies in human anatomy. It's a gruesome livelihood that will bring him into contact with a terrifying serial killer who slips from ballrooms to graveyards and into autopsy suites. And who is far, far closer than Norris could ever imagine...
A gruesome secret is about to be unearthed.
When a human skull is dug up in a garden near Boston, Dr Maura Isles is called in to investigate. She quickly discovers that the skeleton - that of a young woman - has been buried for over a hundred years. But who was the woman? And how did she die?
It is the 1930s, and an impoverished medical student, Norris Marshall, is forced to procure corpses in order to further his studies in human anatomy.
It's a gruesome livelihood that will bring him into contact with a terrifying serial killer who slips from ballrooms to graveyards and into autopsy suites.
And who is far, far closer than Norris could ever imagine.
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5
Julia wants to learn about this forgotten woman and is pleased when a relative of the former owner offers to let her dig through the many, many boxes of stuff he removed from the house when the former owner died at age 92.
Among the stuff in the boxes are some letters from Oliver Wendell Holmes which tell the story of those long ago events of 1830.
The second part of the book tells the story of a poor Irish girl, a poor farmer lad who yearns to be a doctor, and the West End Ripper. Rose watches her sister Aurnia die in the charity ward of a Boston hospital after giving birth to a daughter. Norris Marshall is a medical student who was there when his supervisor examined the sister. Rose is determined to care for the child despite the fact the Aurnia's abusive husband has tried to give her away.
Then the deaths start, and rumors start of an unseen but frightening killer haunting the hospital. Rose and her infant niece seem to be _targets of this killer.
I really enjoyed the historical detail in this story. I also liked Julia who gains courage to take her own chance for love after learning Rose's story. (