A Baby's Bones: A Sage Westfield Novel

by Rebecca Alexander

Overview

"Finely observed, beautifully written" Daily Mail on The Secrets of Life and DeathArchaeologist Sage Westfield has been called in to excavate a sixteenth-century well, and expects to find little more than soil and the odd piece of pottery. But the disturbing discovery of the bones of a woman and newborn baby make it clear that she has stumbled onto an historical crime scene, one that is interwoven with an unsettling local legend of witchcraft and unrequited love. Yet there is more to the case than a four-hundred-year-old mystery. The owners of a nearby cottage are convinced that it is haunted, and the local vicar is being plagued with abusive phone calls. Then a tragic death makes it all too clear that a modern murderer is at work…

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781785656224
Publisher:	Titan
Publication date:	05/01/2018
Series:	Sage Westfield , #1
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	519,435
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Rebecca Alexander is a psychologist and writer. Rebecca wrote her first book aged nineteen, and since then has been runner up in the Mslexia novel writing competition and the Yeovil Literary Prize 2012. She is the author of the Jackdaw Hammond series of supernatural crime novels published by Del Rey, The Secrets of Life and Death (2013), The Secrets of Blood and Bone (2014) and The Secrets of Time and Fate (2016). She lives in Devon.

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/01/2018
Archaeologist Sage Westfield only has a short time to excavate a 16th-century well on the Isle of Wight, as the property's owner is dying. Sage is in the late stages of her pregnancy. She's been warned the well is unsafe. When she uncovers bones belonging to a baby and an adult, probably a woman, Sage and her team attempt to piece together the history of those remains. A parallel account, written by the steward to Lord Banstock during the Tudor years, reveals the horrifying story of a pregnant woman hounded and accused of witchcraft. Sage continues her search for answers despite the feeling she's being watched. When a new body is found in the well, past and present crimes begin to converge. In a departure from her supernatural crime novels (The Secrets of Time and Fate), Alexander carefully constructs an intricately plotted mystery that links story lines of madness and murder. Bittersweet and haunting, this suspenseful story is driven by complex, flawed characters. VERDICT Fans of Kate Ellis's "Wesley" mysteries and Elly Griffith's atmospheric "Ruth Galloway" novels will enjoy the combination of archaeology and history.—Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

Library Journal

03/26/2018
Set on the Isle of Wight, this suspenseful mystery from British author Alexander (The Secrets of Blood and Bone) fuses the secrets of Renaissance-era alchemy and the knowledge wielded by modern archeology. When Sage Westfield, an archeologist hired to conduct a survey of a property adjoining a historic house, discovers the skeletons of a woman and an infant in a 16th-century well, she suspects that they were murdered. Alternating chapters, set in 1580 and narrated by Vincent Garland, the illegitimate steward of Lord Banstock, describe the events leading up to the deaths, which involve Banstock’s beloved niece, Viola; Viola’s fiancé, an aristocrat with a taste for necromancy; and a beautiful French-born seamstress. Meanwhile, a brutal murder shocks the modern-day community, and the dangers of insanity and sexual obsession become frighteningly real in both timelines. Alexander fully develops Westfield and Garland’s characters and keeps the stakes high throughout. Readers will hope this is the start of a series. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Alexander fuses the secrets of Renaissance-era alchemy and the knowledge wielded by modern archeology . . . keeps the stakes high throughout.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Readers who favor historical mysteries as well as those who enjoy modern forensic science will enjoy this one. Fans of Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway series will definitely want to meet Sage, as will those who have followed Erin Hart’s Haunted Ground, also featuring a forensic archaeologist.”
—Booklist

“In a departure from her supernatural crime novels (The Secrets of Time and Fate), Alexander carefully constructs an intricately plotted mystery that links story lines of madness and murder. Bittersweet and haunting, this suspenseful story is driven by complex, flawed characters. Fans of Kate Ellis’s ‘Wesley’ mysteries and Elly Griffith’s atmospheric ‘Ruth Galloway’ novels will enjoy the combination of archaeology and history.”
—Library Journal, starred review

“The mystery deepens at a nice pace, keeping me reading to find out more and trying to guess who was behind it all . . . one of my favorite reads of the year.”
—Criminal Element

From the Publisher