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The Barnes & Noble Review
Bones fascinate forensics professor Gideon Oliver. Even on vacation in Hawaii, he can't resist them. Gideon is dining with the wealthy, eccentric Torkelsson clan at the Hoalaha Cattle Ranch when the family receives some life-altering news. On a tragic night ten years before, Magnus Torkelsson vanished along with his small plane, while his brother Torkel was brutally murdered, his body burned beyond recognition. Now the wreckage of Magnus's plane has been found, along with human remains. Given his extensive experience in the area, Gideon is invited to accompany the crew to the site of the crash to try to fit the last piece into this grim family puzzle.
The surviving Torkelssons benefited greatly from Magnus's will when the old man was declared legally dead. Still, they seem pleased by the prospect of some real closure. Most of the remains are those of a young female pilot; but others -- bones from a skeletal foot with two toes missing -- raise more questions than they answer. Those missing toes prove that it was Torkel -- not Magnus -- who went down with the plane, challenging the previous identification of the burned corpse. Suddenly, Magnus's will is called into question; without definitive proof of his death, his heirs stand to lose their generous inheritances. Then the family matriarch meets an untimely end, and Gideon has a third mystery on his hands.
Edgar Award–winning author Aaron Elkins scores another winner, as his famous "Skeleton Detective" embarks on adventure in Aloha-land. Sue Stone
Marilyn Stasio
Although the twisted story is locked up in family history, Elkins's wide-angle view of the spectacular adds a stunning perspective.
— The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
In Edgar-winner Elkins's solid 12th whodunit to feature forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver (after 2004's acclaimed Good Blood), Oliver's Hawaiian vacation turns into a busman's holiday, as he and close friend John Lau, an FBI agent who's also enjoying some downtime, get involved in a decade-old mystery surrounding the deaths of two elderly Swedish brothers who owned a huge cattle ranch. One night in 1994, hit men acting for an unknown client murdered Torkel Torkelsson, then attempted to conceal the corpse with an act of arson; that same night, Magnus Torklesson and a pilot took off in a small plane, never to be heard from again. Now divers have discovered the wreckage of the long-lost plane in a lagoon, with some skeletal remains. Soon learning that none of the original police investigation's conclusions may be valid, Oliver and Lau find themselves intrigued and frustrated by the lies and evasions pitched rapidly at them by the Torkelssons' heirs, all of whom have different motives for obscuring the truth. Oliver's deductions will remind classic mystery readers of archetypal scientific sleuth Dr. Thorndyke, and his three-dimensional personality and humor will continue to attract first-timers. Agent, Lisa Vance at the Aaron Priest Agency. (Apr. 5) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Some ten-year-old remains turn forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver's Hawaiian trip into a busman's holiday. Magnus Torkelsson's surviving sister Dagmar and his four nieces and nephews all agree on what happened on the Hoalaha Cattle Ranch back in 1994. Hours after somebody-two somebodies, from the ballistic evidence-shot Magnus's brother Torkel to death and burned down the house around him, Magnus took off for parts unknown and was never seen again. Now a fortuitous invitation from Magnus's nephew Axel means that Gideon and his FBI buddy John Lau, Axel's old college friend, are on hand when Magnus's airplane turns up with his remains and those of Claudia Albert, a pilot with a past. Gideon (Good Blood, 2003, etc.) can't imagine a better way to repay the family for their hospitality than examining the bones that have spent a decade in a warm lagoon. But the conclusions that he draws from a single skeletal foot spell trouble for rancher Axel; his brother Felix, a Honolulu land-use lawyer; his sister Inge, who runs a dude ranch on her share of the Hoalaha estate, and his sister Hedwig, who's turned her spread into a holistic wellness center. Gideon is too content with the sun to spend much time with the suspects, and the plot is a little too determined to prove wrong absolutely everything you assume about Magnus's disappearance. But it all adds up to a diverting, mildly mystifying vacation.
