A DEBUT NOVEL
SECRETS AND LIES
CAN'T STAY BURIED FOREVER
IN CEDAR VALLEY.
INHERIT THE BONES
A Mystery
Detective Gemma Monroe Novels
by
Emily Littlejohn
In the summer, hikers and campers pack the small Colorado town's meadows and fields. And in the winter, skiers and snow boarders take over the mountains. Season by season, year afer year, time passes and the lies, like the aspens and evergreens that surround the town, take root and spread deep.
Now someone has uncovered the lies, and it is his murder that continues a chain of events that began almost forty years ago. Detective Gemma Monroe's investigation takes her from the seedy grounds of a traveling circus to the powerful homes of those who would control Cedar Valley's future.
Six months pregnant, with a partner she can't trust and colleagues who know more than they're saying, Gemma tracks a killer who will stop at nothing to keep these secrets buried.
Beautifully written, with a riveting plot and a richly drawn cast of characters, Inherit the Bones is a mesmerizing debut from Emily Littlejohn.
THE AUTHOR:
Emily Littlejohn was born and raised in Southern California and now lives in Colorado. If she's not writing, reading, or working at the local public library, she's enjoying the mountains with her husband and sweet old dog. She has a deep love of horror stories, butter pecan ice cream, and road trips. Inherit the Bones is her first novel.
MY THOUGHTS:
The author opens her novel with an account of skeletons of two boys that weren't found until years after their going missing. Deputy Gemma Monroe found the skeletons. To this day she is still haunted by what she found. Now, she is in search of answers to a young man, murdered at a traveling circus. But this young man was supposed to have died three years before. He doesn't look the same, but it's the same man. What is going on? The present always goes back to the past and the past always leads to the present. That will never change. This book ws well written by the author. It's like she was putting herself int he role of Deputy Gemma Monroe. You're seeing the events and people as it's really happening. The crime scenes, well, you will visualize them even in your dreams. So did Gemma. She lived with them night and day. The author gives the reader several characters and they are all very well developed. There are lighter moments such as the town's librarian, sweet Tilly. You have to smile and you have to love her. I wonder if the author got this character from her own life working in a library.
Gemma gives a lot of herself. She is a strong willed woman who is intelligent, has the respect of the people who work with her and on top of that she is going to have a baby. Quite a woman. She sticks to her guns and doesn't give up. Seems like the perfect life, hectic but perfect. She has issues in her personal life but she's handling the best she can.
The reader isn't hit all at once with murder, the dangers surrounding but the author slowly builds the suspense. Clues are left here and there and this is one case that isn't solved just on accident. This is a carefully planned case and the clues are taken one by one leading to the solution.
A very well plotted book, developed characters, characters you can love and maybe a few you can just tolerate. The author lets the reader be a sleuth and try to solve the crimes while giving clues slowly as the pages turn.
To me this was more like a real life story, events that could happen and a story the reader will keep thinking about long after the book is closed.
As the first sentence goes: (from book)
"In my dreams, the dead can speak. They call to me, in whispers and murmurs, and I greet them by name, like old friends.".........
"A smile is the dancing in the eyes, the joy in the face."....
"We are the dead, they chant. Do not forget us.".......
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author and Night Owl Reviews and voluntarily decided to review it.
I would give this book 5 STARS.
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