This is a good story - with a few surprises – about the discovery of a body that is now being investigated as a cold case.
The chapters are short and jump from one person to another, as each deals with the aftermath of the unearthed body. There are a lot of names to keep track of (and 2 people whose names change): we follow the investigator (who has her own baggage to deal with), the media person covering the story, the relatives of the victims, and each member of a group of 6 high school students (now adults several years later) who for years have kept a big secret related to the case.
The book felt a little imbalanced in that it was initially very focused on the lead investigator’s personal issues, which were then barely mentioned. It otherwise had all the right ingredients, but I didn’t love this one, maybe because there were so many people that I didn’t get invested in them, and maybe because the crimes that they committed were so awful.
I was provided with an ARC (thanks to the author & publisher!) and I am voluntarily posting my honest review. ( )

In THE UNQUIET BONES a cold case is finally solved after bones are discovered under a chapel at a ski resort.

Sargeant Jane Munro has been transferred to Cold Cases after an emotional outburst at work. She's dealing with a fiancé who went missing while hiking and an unexpected pregnancy. She feels that she is in limbo and can't move forward or back.

The bones prove to be those of a fifteen-year-old girl named Annalise Jansen who went missing Labor Day Weekend in 1976. The body was preserved in such a way that her torso wasn't skeletonized leading to the information that she was three months pregnant at the time of her death. There's the possibility of getting fetal DNA to help identify the father.

As Jane reopens the almost fifty-year-old case, she begins to reinterview witnesses from the time Annalise went missing. Jane also learns that a young man named Darryl went missing the same night. It was thought at the time that they ran off together. Darryl's reputation had been trashed at the time leaving only his father and sister to mourn him. His disappearance didn't get as much media play since a black young man wasn't as interesting as a cute and perky blond girl.

The story talks about the aftereffects of an unexplained disappearance on those who were left behind. Annalise's parents seem frozen in time fearing even to leave their house lest they be gone should Annalise return. Her best friends, who are all keeping secrets of varying kinds, have built successful lives that could be destroyed if their parts in her disappearance are ever discovered. And the young, ambitious news reporter who is eager to capitalize on the discovery of Annalise's remains also has her life changed by the experience.

This was a fast-paced thriller told from multiple viewpoints. I was intrigued by the story. ( )