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by Simon Beckett
Dr. David Hunter should be in London with the woman he loves and a past he can’t quite shake off. Instead, as a favor to a beleaguered cop, Hunter travels to a remote island in the Outer Hebrides to inspect a baffling set of remains. A forensic anthropologist, he has seen bodies destroyed by all forms of violence, but even he is surprised at what he finds: human remains burned beyond recognition—all within the confines of an otherwise undamaged, unoccupied cottage. Local police want to rule the death accidental. But Hunter’s examination of the victim’s charred skull tells him that this woman, no doubt a stranger to the close-knit island of Runa, was murdered by someone nearby.
Within days, two more people are dead by fire. Hunter’s job is to coax the dead into telling their stories—but now that he’s beginning to hear them, he is staggered by the truth. Working with only the barest of clues, he peels back the layers of mysteries past and present, exposing the tangle of secrets at the heart of this strange community—from the deceptions of a wealthy couple to the bitterness of an ex-cop and the secrets of a lonely single mother—as a tale of rage and perversion comes full circle…then explodes in a series of violent acts and shocking twists.
"Starred Review. While some plot elements may be a little too close to those of the prior book, Beckett does them better here, and is especially adept at blending first- and third-person narratives to heighten the tension." - Publishers Weekly.
"Forensic details never overwhelm the story, and Beckett is on solid ground when it come to plotting and ratcheting up the tension. His ending is a stunner." - Booklist.
This information about Written in Bone 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.
Simon Beckett was born 20 April 1960 in Sheffield, England. After an MA in English, Beckett spent several years as a property repairer before teaching in Spain. Back in the UK, he played percussion in several bands. He has been a freelance journalist since 1992, writing for national British newspapers and magazines. Some of his more memorable assignments have included going on police drugs raids, touring brothels with a vice unit and trying to learn how to win a gun fight in Nevada. It was a visit to the Body Farm in Tennessee that was the inspiration behind the internationally bestselling David Hunter crime thrillers, which have now been translated into 29 languages.
Simon's novels have now sold over 8 million copies worldwide, and he was the UK's top selling author in Europe for 2009. The Chemistry of Death was shortlisted for the 2006 CWA's Duncan Lawrie (Gold) Dagger and the Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year in 2008. He has also been shortlisted twice for the Dagger in the Library award, in 2009 and 2010, when he was highly commended. In 2011 The Calling of the Grave spent nine weeks at the top of the German hardback charts, and also reached No. 1 in Austria, Switzerland and Poland
Follow Simon at http://www.simonbeckett.com
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