I met Michelle Gagnon at the Book Group Expo…somehow we got to talking about Tana French and how awesomely good her books are, and I was like, how could I not like her books since I like her as a person so much? HA! That’s silly reasoning, eh? Lucky for me I was RIGHT!
In fact, as a sidenote, I met so many cool authors at the Book Group Expo, authors who I thought I’d totally be friends with if only they knew how truly geeky I really am…Diana Spechler, Michelle Gagnon, Garth Stein, Carol Fitzgerald (not an author but totally cool!), Lauren John (again, not an author but really cool!), Andre Dubus III (lots of people thought he came across as arrogant, I thought he came across as well read. I would LOVE to take a class from him (he’s currently on the adjunct faculty at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he teaches general writing, fiction, and directed study courses)), Rabih Alameddine…and those are only the authors I had a chance to talk to! (This paragraph was the inspiration for this post.)
ANYWAY, back to the book. This story features Kelly Jones, who works for the FBI in the Behavioral Science Unit. She helps find killers, and in this case she’s searching for a serial killer. The story gets tricky when she realizes that she’s hunting two killers, one experienced and one novice, but WE know the novice is also hunting the experienced one. Oh, and then there’s all kinds of snarky goodness between these two local cops, and one of the local cops is hiding something and slowing down the investigation, but we don’t know why…and the goodness continues like that all through the book.
And! I liked the lack of cliches! Yes, let’s stop the predictable cliches that are in every book! Thank you, Michelle, for not having the cliche that I thought was coming. I love you!
The story is told from alternating points of view: we have Kelly; the experienced killer; and the novice killer. I love it when authors write this way, because then I get to be omniscient, but I wasn’t really omniscient with Boneyard because the author just gives you a wisp of what the killers are up to, enough to get in their brain, but not so much that you’re not surprised when the killers do something psychotic-like. You just get enough information to know the experienced killer is an upstanding member of society with a wife and kids and the novice killer has psychological and delusional problems and isn’t mentally stable. Most creepy!
The book was good! It was a great mystery? thriller? whatever you call it, it’s a murder mystery, and pretty darn good. I love these kinds of books because I can just go along with the story, I don’t have to think too much, and I get plenty of adrenaline rushes. These books are my guilty pleasure that I go back to so I can relax and just enjoy a good story. Because what’s better than rain outside the window and you in a hot bath reading a mystery/thriller? NOTHING, THAT’S WHAT.
Rating: 86 out of 100
| Tags: boneyard, book group expo, book review, Books, michelle gagnon, mystery, Reading, serial killer, thriller 8 comments »
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:25 pm
It does sound good – I like that kind of book.
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:54 pm
This isn’t my usual type of book anymore, but you make it sound so good that I might have to just go and put it on my wish list anyway……
December 2nd, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Sounds exactly like my kind of book! yeah! Thanks for the great review.
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:16 pm
You’re the best, Trish! So happy you liked it. If you get a chance give Chelsea Cain’s books a try, they’re in a similar vein and a lot of fun (in a sick, twisted way…)
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:34 pm
this book sounds great! thanks!
December 3rd, 2008 at 5:32 am
I’ve placed this on my TBR list on good reads…you had me at Behavioral Science Unit!
Don’t you just love when you meet authors that you click with.
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:40 am
Ooooh… this sounds really good!
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:25 am
it is pretty exciting to meet the author of a book
You so want to like there books as well. Good, that it is good 