"Bones," Pee-Wee Boxer said.
With these words the mystery starts on a construction site in New York City. A charnel is uncovered with the remains of 36 bodies bricked into the walls of an old coal tunnel. Who did this? Why?
The answers put Nora Kelly, an anthropologist at the New York Museum of Natural History smack in the middle of a 150-year-old crime scene. A letter sewn into a victim's patched dress leads Nora and FBI agent Pendergast into a twisted maze of leads.
When Nora's boyfriend, William Smithback writes up the story for his paper new murders begin with the same MO.
The answers slowly unwind despite the intervention of the power and money of others.
You will like this book if you like mystery and the macabre. It kept me asking, "What's next?" I also found the explanations to questions raised very interesting. For example, the book explained that a Cabinet of Curiosities is an exhibition of the unusual such as two headed calves preserved in jars, skeletons of dinosaur bones, as well as things obviously pieced together from unrelated objects. For two cents, the people of 18th century New York could take a tour. This was a good outing for the people who worked in the factories and lived in poverty.
The language was refreshingly clean and it is obvious the book is geared for people with intelligence.
Review by Willa Hurliman