Written in Bone - Simon Beckett

I got this book as I enjoyed reading Beckett's first book, 'The Chemistry of Death.' Written in Bone is an excellent 2nd book, which has some good twists in it, just like his first book. Again we meet Dr Hunter, now a forensic anthropologist who goes to a remote Scottish island as a body has been found. He works with a drunk police officer, a new and young police officer and a retired DI who found the body. It turns out to be a burnt body in an isolated cottage leading them to first think it's a homeless man who got too close to the fire. However it's not long before Dr Hunter has more than one body to deal with... To top this they end up ...  Read the complete review

There is a reason why so many of the main protagonists in crime fiction are police officers or private investigators. It's because it makes sense for these people to be in and around a murder investigation or other crime. If your friend went missing who would you call? I am guessing one of the above groups rather than a teacher/librarian/old woman/butcher etc. Crow barring a character into a mystery is never an easy thing; it's why people never invite Jessica Fletcher around. How are you supposed to know that a little old crime writer happens also to be an angel of death? Despite this difficulty, authors continue to try and mix things up so that their books are ...  Read the complete review

Following on from the end of the last novel that saw Dr.David Hunter returning to his chosen profession of forensic anthropologist almost reluctantly, we start this new novel from acclaimed writer Simon Beckett as his protagonist prepares to return from the wilds of Scotland and a paticulary nasty murder scene to which he has been lending his very specialised expertise. His relationship with the woman he met and fell in love with in the previous novel is a little stressed. She tires of him jet-setting off to lend his assisstance and longs for him to remain closer at home but David has opened Pandora's Box and now he has returned to that he meant to leave behind, he finds ...  Read the complete review