(2007)Another very good novel by Gerritsen, although this is not technically a Rizzoli & Isles. Isles does make a cameo, but this is about a present day woman who finds a woman buried in her back yard that leads to an apparent serial murderer in the 1830s. Oliver Wendell Holmes is a medical student that also becomes in the murders when he helps one of his classmates in trying to prove that the killer is not him. Leads to a woman who is trying to prevent the discovery that her brother has fathered two heirs to their fortune.KIRKUS REVIEWAn old mystery is crossed with a modern story in the latest from Gerritsen (The Mephisto Club, 2006, etc.).Julia Hamill, newly divorced and still smarting, purchases an old house outside Boston. Determined to dig a garden, she instead finds the bones of a long-dead woman¥the apparent victim of murderÂ¥which starts her on a journey to ferret out the story behind her death. Julia connects with Henry, a no-nonsense 89-year-old with boxes of documents that once belonged to the now-deceased previous owner of Julia's home. The two discover a mystery dating back to the 1830s. At the heart of it is a baby named Meggie, born to the beautiful but doomed Irish chambermaid, Aurnia. Married to a man who cares nothing for her, Aurnia lays dying in a maternity ward with her sister, Rose, at her side. Rose, a spirited 17-year-old, takes Meggie to protect her from Aurnia's husband, but soon finds herself the target of a bizarre manhunt. Someone is after the childÂ¥and Rose, as well, because she witnessed a horrifying murder. The body count piles up as Rose struggles to remain free of those who would take Meggie from her. Meanwhile, a young medical student becomes the chief suspect of the West End Reaper killings when he stumbles onto another terrible homicide. Although he fights the prospect, eventually he and Rose join forces to solve the murders and protect the baby at the heart of the mysterious deaths.Readers with delicate stomachs may find Gerritsen's graphic descriptions of corpse dissection hard to take, but the story, which digs up a dark Boston of times long past, entices readers to keep turning pages long after their bedtimes.

Tess Gerrittsen is my new favorite mystery author. This novel follows two time periods and a budding modern era romance. Old skeletal remains are found in a garden which opens up an interesting mystery in Victorian Boston. Diverse characters and fear of a killer in oldBoston made this an engaging book. ( )

Tess Gerritsen is just as creepy as I remember her. "The Bone Garden" satisfied my need to read medical and historical fiction at the same time--a double win. Narrator Susan Denake has just the right tone. I enjoyed it. ( )

In the present day, Julia has recently moved into a new home in the outskirts of Boston, trying to move on with her life after a divorce. As she is digging in her garden, she discovers some human bones, dating back to more than a century earlier. She eventually meets someone who has stored some old documents that may hold the key to identifying the bones. Alternately in 1830, medical student Norris Marshall, friends with a young Oliver Wendell Holmes, becomes entwined in a series of murders and must prove his innocence.

I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I've read a couple other Tess Gerritsen novels and I tend to lump her in with the other typical thriller genre authors: decent storylines, sometimes a little farfetched, but nothing truly remarkable or earth shattering, though they're nice to read between heavier novels. But this one seemed to have a little more meat to it and borders on the historical fiction genre, which I usually enjoy. And I did enjoy this book. I suspect this is one of Gerritsen's better novels. ( )

I like the way Tess Gerritsen writes. In this one she blends the historical background of medical practice in the 19th century with a murder mystery which plays out in the past. The protagonists in the present are studying family artifacts and letters to unravel the mystery of a recently discovered body that has been buried for over a hundred years, and its connection to a serial killer of the 1830s, known as the West End Reaper. The story is an entertaining blend of human emotions, mystery and and historical information.

Of course there is also a lot of human suffering, gory descriptions of murder and dissected bodies, but at least in the world of the novel, all loose strands are tied up and justice is served -in a manner- to both living and dead.


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