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by Vanessa Lillie
When a Native teenager vanishes from her small town—a place with dark ties to an elite historical society—archaeologist Syd Walker is called to investigate...from bestselling author Vanessa Lillie.
In the hours before dawn at a local summer camp, Bureau of Indian Affairs archaeologist Syd Walker receives an alarming call: newly discovered skeletal remains have been stolen. Not only have bones gone missing, but a Native teen girl has disappeared near the camp, and law enforcement dismisses her family's fears.
As Syd investigates both crimes, she's drawn into a world of privileged campers and their wealthy parents—most of them members of the Founders Society, an exclusive club whose members trace their lineage to the first colonists and claim ancestral rights to the land, despite fierce objections from the local tribal community. And it's not the first time something—or someone—has gone missing from the camp.
The deeper Syd digs, the more she realizes these aren't isolated incidents. A pattern of disappearances stretches back generations, all leading to the Founders Society's doorstep. But exposing the truth means confronting not just the town's most powerful families, but also a legacy of violence that refuses to stay buried.
From the national bestselling author of Blood Sisters (a Washington Post Best Mystery of the Year and Target Book Club pick) comes a new Syd Walker novel that proves the sins of the past are destined to repeat until the truth is finally unearthed.
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (11/20/2025)
I read "Bone Thief" by Vanessa Lillie, re-read Claire Keegan's "Small Things Like These" for my book group, & just started the fifth Thursday Murder Club title, "Impossible Fortune" by Richard Osman. I've had it on hold at the library for what seems like forever–it's going to go fast!
-Carol_Ann_Robb
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This information about The Bone Thief was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Vanessa Lillie is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation and the author of the USA Today bestselling Blood Sisters and suspense novels Little Voices, For the Best and coauthor of the Young Rich Widows series. Vanessa hosts an Instagram Live show with crime fiction authors and was a columnist for the Providence Journal. Originally from Northeast Oklahoma, she lives on Narragansett land in Rhode Island and is proudly Two-Spirit.
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