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Robertson, Imogen - 'Island of Bones'
Paperback: 496 pages (Mar. 2012) Publisher: Headline Review ISBN: 0755372042

This wonderfully crafted tale is absolutely fantastic! Another new style for me: being very much a procedural historical crime novel with no icky bits, and I loved every single page of it! This richly woven, beautiful story, featuring Gabriel Crowther and his wonderfully shocking friend Harriet Westerman, has you hooked in pretty quickly. The sheer amount of detail, both fact and fiction, that is included in the novel is simply outstanding, and the very useful author's note at the end gives more information of the facts in the story, along with how they are connected with the fiction.

THE ISLAND OF BONES is the third book in the series featuring Harriet and Crowther and is a highly readable book. In the story, Crowther is requested to return to his childhood home, along with his unconventional friend Harriet Westerman, and identify a body that has turned up unexpectedly in a grave that should have just had two people in it. Crowther and Harriet soon discover the body is a man who has been stabbed to death but the situation only gets darker as they dig into his possible identity. This case is particularly difficult for Crowther, as it forces him to face the demons of his past; especially his own brother's public execution for the murder of their father some thirty years before. It seems that the past is painfully intertwined with the present and that in order to solve the mystery he must look at his own harrowing past for answers.

This is my first read of a book by Imogen Robertson and I am very pleased to have had the pleasure of doing so. I am highly delighted to have the next in this series, CIRCLE OF SHADOWS, at the top of my reading pile and will be reviewing that as well in the very near future!

Very highly recommended.

Read another review of ISLAND OF BONES.

Amanda C M Gillies, Scotland
September 2012

Amanda blogs at Old Dogs and New Tricks.

Details of the author's other books with links to reviews can be found on the Books page.
More European crime fiction reviews can be found on the Reviews page.



last updated 8/09/2012 13:21