Unknown bones, untold secrets, and unsolved crimes from the distant past cast ominous shadows on the present in the dazzling new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen. 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 … according to the trained eye of Boston medical examiner Maura Isles, scarred with the unmistakable marks of murder. But whoever this nameless woman was, and whatever befell her, is knowledge lost to another time.
Boston, 1830: In order to pay for his education, Norris Marshall, a talented but penniless student at Boston Medical College, has joined the ranks of local “resurrectionists”–those who plunder graveyards and harvest the dead for sale on the black market. Yet even this ghoulish commerce pales beside the shocking murder of a nurse found mutilated on the university hospital grounds. And when a distinguished doctor meets the same grisly fate, Norris finds that trafficking in the illicit cadaver trade has made him a prime suspect.
To prove his innocence, Norris must track down the only witness to have glimpsed the killer: Rose Connolly, a beautiful seamstress from the Boston slums who fears she may be the next victim. Joined by a sardonic, keenly intelligent young man named Oliver Wendell Holmes, Norris and Rose comb the city–from its grim cemeteries and autopsy suites to its glittering mansions and centers of Brahmin power–on the trail of a maniacal fiend who lurks where least expected . . . and who waits for his next lethal opportunity.
With unflagging suspense and pitch-perfect period detail, The Bone Garden deftly interweaves the thrilling narratives of its nineteenth- and twenty-first century protagonists, tracing the dark mystery at its heart across time and place to a finale as ingeniously conceived as it is shocking. Bold, bloody, and brilliant, this is Tess Gerritsen’s finest achievement to date.
This ebook edition contains a special preview of Tess Gerritsen’s I Know a Secret.
“The story, which digs up a dark Boston of times long past, entices readers to keep turning pages long after their bedtimes.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred)
more
Love Tess Gerritson! It’s one of those that hooks you in right away and you have to keep reading until the end! I’m medical so it was also very interesting from that historical perspective.
The Bone Garden is the story of Rose Conelly and Norris Matthews in 1830 and Julia Hamill in the present time. Julia finds the bones of a woman buried in the garden of an old house she buys.
The bones are known to Oliver Windell Holmes who is a medical student in Boston in 1830.
The book is wonderful entertainment and rich history woven together …
Great mystery.
This is the story of a woman – newly divorced – that buys a fixer upper house in Massachusetts. While digging in her garden, she discovers a skull. The authorities determine the body is from around the 1830s, and the hunt for who the body begins. Since the authorities aren’t interested, Julia enlists the help of the previous family of the house …
I read this book years ago. Definitely recommend it!!
I would highly recommend this book. I really like Tess Gerritsen books and this is one of her classics.
I love reading anything by Tess Gerritsen! An amazing author who keeps you guessing and hooked on the story line!
The cover makes this look like the book is scary and bloody. It has bits of those elements but at it’s core it’s historical fiction and if you like that genre, you’ll enjoy this. It’s told from multiple view points but the main narrators are Julia in the present and Rose in 1830’s Boston. I think Rose’s story is more enthralling and well written. …
This is a phenomenal story…very long and in depth. I listened to it on CD and I was truly sorry when it ended…I felt like I knew the characters. This was the first of Tess’s books that I had ever read, and once it was finished I went and read all of her other works too. They are all good, but none as good as The Bone Garden.
Another great book by Tess Gerritson!