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The Bone Garden

by Tess Gerritsen (Goodreads Author)

3.96 of 5 stars 3.96 · rating details · 10,291 ratings · 1,048 reviews

Julia Hamill is gardening one afternoon in rural Massachusetts when her spade strikes something soft and unyielding - not a rock but a human skull.

Medical examiner Maura Isles quickly determines that the skeleton - that of a woman - dates back to the early 1800s.'But too much time has passed,' Maura warns Julia. 'We may never know the whole story of how she died.'

Boston in...more

Hardcover, 370 pages

Published 2007 by Bantam

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Apr 18, 2008 Laurel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A page-turner historical fiction/whodunit with some fascinating (and gruesome) glimpses of early 1800s medical school training in the US. Written by a physician - a quick read that will make you grateful you live now instead of then! One of the characters is Oliver Wendell Holmes, not the Supreme Court judge, but his father, who, in 1843, introduced a new practice to American medicine in an attempt to control "childbed fever"...suggesting that physicians wash their hands between patients.

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Dec 02, 2012 ☪ℒiℱ ☚☠☛ rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

perfect!

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Dec 08, 2008 KD rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those who enjoy mysteries, historical reads and those who like twists in the endings.

Recommended to KD by: my mother.

At first, I was quite perplexed over the present day/historical split as the present day story seemed thin with the majority of the tale taking place in the 1830's. In the end, the story came full circle, providing that connection for the characters in both eras. I thought the details regarding medicine of the 1800's was fantastically gruesome and superbly done (and as many other reviews have stated, made me VERY happy to be a woman today!) with descriptions so rich your could almost smell the...more

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May 09, 2013 Ken Consaul rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: diehard Gerritsen fans

This is my second foray into Tess Gerritsen's books. I enjoyed about eighty percent of this one. As anyone who has read The Bone Garden, they can guess which eighty percent I'm talking about.

I really don't see what the present day tie in had to do with the story. Essentially (not really a spoiler), a woman buys a house, finds a skull when gardening. The famous Maura Isles shows up, appears on two pages to tell the reader she has nothing to do with the story. The rest of the present day segments...more

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Feb 27, 2013 Cris rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: suspense, historicos, moderno, policial

Sangue e tripas!
É o primeiro livro da autora que eu pego pra ler e quase que caio das pernas!
A história é densa e tem um ritmo que te faz avançar as páginas madrugada adentro, sem querer parar de ler. O único problema é que sou nervosa, e quando chega nas partes mais densas eu tenho de parar de ler para poder digerir a história e só depois passar para a parte seguinte, e isso me travou um pouco a leitura (sem contar o fato desagradável de ter de dormir e acordar cedo para ir trabalhar), não foss...more

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Oct 17, 2012 S rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the second book that I have read by this author so I'm not that familiar with her work. I love books that are set in `the olden days' so I really enjoyed this read. It follows a newly divorced woman by the name of Julia Hamill as she moves into her new home and discovers bones in the garden. Julia wants to know how the bones came to be in her garden and she slowly finds clues and answers by contacting the former owner's family.
The book then goes back to the 1830's where you begin to lear...more

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Aug 15, 2012 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This parallel narratives spends most of its time in 1830s Boston, a time when Irish immigrants were looked down upon and medicine was still in its infancy. Into this setting is placed a 17-year-old girl and her older sister who is laboring unsuccessfully with her first child in a foul-smelling ward. The doctor is attended by medical students, most of whom are from wealthy, privileged families like Oliver Wendell Holmes. Norris Marshall is the outcast - a farmer's son, working his way through med...more

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Aug 06, 2012 Kristen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: action-thriller

Present day: the story begins when Jula Hamill, trying to start over after the breakup of a marriage to a selfish, nasty ex-husband, decides that digging a garden in the old dilapidated house she's purchased is the perfect way to build something from the ashes. Unfortunately, instead of a peaceful pasttime, she finds the hundred year old bones of a woman buried in her yard. And when the coroner investigating says the bones show signs of murder, Julia begins a personal investigation to find out w...more Present day: the story begins when Jula Hamill, trying to start over after the breakup of a marriage to a selfish, nasty ex-husband, decides that digging a garden in the old dilapidated house she's purchased is the perfect way to build something from the ashes. Unfortunately, instead of a peaceful pasttime, she finds the hundred year old bones of a woman buried in her yard. And when the coroner investigating says the bones show signs of murder, Julia begins a personal investigation to find out who the woman was, and what happened to her. Julia's efforts as an amteur sleuth lead her to the cousin of the previous owner of her home, and boxes of old letters, some from the noted doctor and poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Boston, 1830 - In the early days of medicine, medical student Norris Marshall is the sole poor young man in a medical school filled with affluent, priviledged young men of good families. Despite his modest beginnings, Norris is determined to be a doctor. When a doctor and teacher at the school is discovered brutally murdered and mutilated, the "West End Reaper" begins a horrific spree of murder that terrifies - and fascinates - all of Boston. Soon, suspicion falls on Norris as the possible murderer, and he must enlist the aid of his friend and fellow medical student Oliver Wendell Holmes to try to prove his innocence and stay off the gallows. And how, exactly, does the orphaned baby daughter of a poor Irish chamber-maid who dies in the hospital Norris is working in as a student fit into all these murders? What about the baby's aunt, Rose, who's hiding her to try to keep her safe?

The book flips between the present and Julia's efforts to discover what happened to the woman in her garden, and back to 1830's Boston where the events leading circuitously to Julia's discovery in her garden a century later began. The story is full of excitement, clever twists and turns, and more than one red herring.

One warning: Tess Gerritsen is a doctor, and some of the descriptions of both the murders and the medical student's education are quite graphic and detailed, but if you are a fan of true crime or other murder mysteries, it should not bother you and it does make sense given the plot and the fact that the early medical schools of Boston play a big part in what happens.

Gerritsen knows how to write an intelligent, compelling murder mystery with interesting characters, well-designed complex plots, and plenty of hints and red herrings thrown in along the way. She also paints a very colourful and atmospheric picture of 1800's Boston. The dual story-line with people in two different centuries investigating the same events is a neat approach. I enjoyed this book.(less)

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Jun 19, 2012 Lynn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was an excellent book for I liked Julia Hamill who is recently divorced and trying to pull her life together in current time and while she is digging in her garden trying to use up energy and tire herself out, she comes across a body. In swoops Dr Maura Isles and a professor of local history who determine that this was not a recent homicide. So after a brief encounter with her neighbor she gets a mysterious phone call from an 89 year old man in Maine who is a relative of the homes previous...more

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Jun 24, 2011 Kim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiobooks-read, suspense-mystery-thriller

Fabulous whodunnit with an interesting twist - the story is related in the present day via letters found written by people in the 1800's. This can be qualified as all of these - historical fiction/suspense/mystery/romance/horror/biography - all in one book. The related story is tied to a house that is purchased by the main character at the start of the book. I listened to this via audio & I have to say it is one of the best presented audiobooks I've read to date. Extraordinary reader - I can...more

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Apr 02, 2011 Laurie Carlson added it · review of another edition

This book takes place in the present and the past in the early 1830's. It switches back and forth in an easy way. The author will tell you 'present day' or 1830, so you are NOT lost while reading this. She has even brought in the real Oliver Wendell Holmes. The premise of this book is this so far; a woman buys a new house. While she is gardening, she comes across a complete skeleton. A Forensic Anthropologist is called in and she is working to identify the body. The book goes back to the 1830's,...more

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Oct 09, 2010 Andrea rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

Julia Hamill buys a home in rural Massachusetts, and finds a buried body. Maura Isles, Boston Medical Examiner, comes to the scene and determines that the body has been interred for a very long time. Specifically, the woman had been murdered some time in the early 19th century.

The home had previously been occupied by a woman in her nineties, who had left a house full of boxes, papers to relatives. Anxious to know more of the previous occupant, Julia travels to Maine to meet the cousin who took c...more

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Aug 08, 2010 Stephen Hayes rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-fiction, historical-novel, our-books

I quite like books that have a mystery in the past that has repercussions in the present; Robert Goddard is probably one of the better-known current exponents of that genre. This one is Tess Gerritsen's attempt to write a novel like that, where a recently-divoced woman, Julia Hamill, buys an old house, and finds a skeleton buried in the garden.

The previous occupant of the house had died, leaving a great accumulation of papers, and, instead of tossing them out, her relatives had passed them on t...more

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May 10, 2010 S.D. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery-historical

Newly divorced Julia Hamill purchases a house badly in need of repair. While giving the garden a needed facelift Julia discovers bones. Curious about the house and former owner, she digs into the history of the property and is put in touch with one of the relatives who has boxes of letters and papers dating back to the 1800s. The book flashes back to Boston in the 1830s where we meet Norris Marshall and Oliver Wendell Holmes, two of the medical interns. What is most fascinating to learn are the...more

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Mar 14, 2010 Barbra rated it 3 of 5 stars

Tess Gerritsen's books are riveting page-turners. I have read all of her Isles/Rizzoli books. I have to say that I much prefer her later stuff to her earlier stand-alones.

Back Cover Blurb:
Julia Hamill is gardening one afternoon when her spade strikes something soft but unyielding - not a rock but a human skull.
Medical examiner Maura Isles quickly determines that the skeleton - that of a woman - dates back to the early 1800s. Forensic evidence indicates foul play. 'But too much time has passed,'...more

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Dec 16, 2009 Laurie rated it 2 of 5 stars

At the start of this disappointing stand-alone thriller from bestseller Gerritsen (The Mephisto Club), 38-year-old divorcée Julia Hamill discovers a skeleton buried in the garden of the Boston house she's just moved into; the ring found with the remains was in fashion in the 1830s, the fractured bones suggest murder. Flashback to 1830: medical student Norris Marshall, an outcast among his wealthier classmates, meets Rose Connolly in a Boston maternity ward, where Rose's sister recently died of c...more

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Dec 02, 2009 Beth rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-book

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 27, 2009 D.M. rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: readers of crime and historical crime fiction

Shelves: crime

This crime novel crams more human suffering into one work of fiction than anything I’ve read previously in this genre. It is set in two time periods: in 1830 in Boston and the present day. In the present, newly divorced Julia Hamill is digging weeds in the garden of her ‘haunted’ house when she digs up the bones of a young woman presumed murdered. Through an elderly male contact, who has connections to her old house, the two uncover through a series of letters from a man living of the time of th...more This crime novel crams more human suffering into one work of fiction than anything I’ve read previously in this genre. It is set in two time periods: in 1830 in Boston and the present day. In the present, newly divorced Julia Hamill is digging weeds in the garden of her ‘haunted’ house when she digs up the bones of a young woman presumed murdered. Through an elderly male contact, who has connections to her old house, the two uncover through a series of letters from a man living of the time of the murder, the whole tale about the death of the girl.

Gerritsen, herself a medical doctor, takes you on a macabre journey though the squalor and the wealth of a society that mostly comprises of hypocrites and people with little to no conscience. Much of it concerns the resurrectionalist, a fancy name for a grave robber, paid to dig up the freshly dead for purpose of training young men into the medical profession. One grave robber hovers like a vulture and takes matters further into his own hands when there’s not enough bodies to go around. The novel also deals with an epidemic with women dying from infection after childbirth and their treatment as less than human in appalling conditions.

The heroine of 1830, Rose, is a strong willed Irish girl who sets out to save her dead sister’s newborn child from the grasp of a mysterious interested party that the author does not successfully tie into to being the same person as the serial killer of several well-known workers from the hospital. The girl’s trials are more frantic and overwhelming than what a reader could be expected to bear and, at times, I felt the reader was being made bear a cross for the unconscionable acts of the many psychopathic personalities she portrays; even the present day’s Julia's ex husband is a one.

Through protracted maudlin plot elements the reader is quickly brought and left in such despair that a cry could go up for a valium. I asked my elderly Dad’s opinion (he’s a lifelong reader), after telling him about the novel. He said that that it’s hard as a reader to put yourself through such a ordeal of reading, as such things could affect the spirit in a negative way, whereas a novel should be primarily an entertainment. He elucidated what I was felt about it.

The weakest point in this novel was that the characters all seemed either good or evil. As I write myself I know that few people are all evil or all good, there is a mixture in everyone. Therefore, Gerritsen carries this overdone theme to the most uncomfortable degree putting her all good heroines and heroes under extreme duress by the hands of their antagonists from hell. Also there was a particularly underdone and slopping premise that eludes to the situation that Julia is a reincarnation of the girl Rose. The heart violins in D minor play. Not!

So on the one hand Gerritsen paints an interesting picture of an historical life and times and showcase her ability to write on a medical theme she does not convince with her characters and overkills with unnecessary drawn out scenes of human suffering. I was glad to finish it - and had only continued to read it - long after it ceased to impress and began to depress me, if only to find out the identity of the serial murderer.

Gerritsen has written a series of crime novels and when I picked this book up from the library I was after a new author that I could return to if I felt like reading one of this genre. The Bone Garden did not do that for me and I will not be reading any more from this author. It was enough to go through this one drawn-out ordeal.
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Sep 30, 2009 David rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: completed

Gerritsen continues to turn out solid thrillers with cleverly plotted mysteries. In this novel, Julia discovers skeleton remains while digging in the garden area of her new home. They turn out to be quite old and a relative of the previous owner thinks he may have a clue as to the owner of the remains is in a box of old correspondence and newspaper clippings that were collected by the house's previous owner. The story flashes back to 1830's Boston and the city is in fear of a gruesome killer on...more

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Jul 23, 2009 Sibyl rated it 5 of 5 stars

I just finished reading The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen. As I thought about writing a review of the book I decided to mention where I had read an interview with her--the one that led me to select this book to read. As happens more and more often, I couldn’t locate the darn magazine or remember which one the article was in. My thoughts drifted farther afield to consider in my review, how had I missed reading Gerritsen until now? One more step lodged itself in this zigzagging brain, what is my c...more I just finished reading The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen. As I thought about writing a review of the book I decided to mention where I had read an interview with her--the one that led me to select this book to read. As happens more and more often, I couldn’t locate the darn magazine or remember which one the article was in. My thoughts drifted farther afield to consider in my review, how had I missed reading Gerritsen until now? One more step lodged itself in this zigzagging brain, what is my criteria for a reading list? How many more wonderful authors are there out there that I have yet to read? How do I find them?
All of these considerations are to say: how have I missed reading anything by Tess Gerritsen until now? Tearing up (that is, tears) as a book is ending is definitely a sign that my emotions have been engaged. As The Bone Garden was ending, those tears welled up as I sensed such a satisfaction as to how she knitted together the skeins: characters, plot, history, and the true-to-life facts of a real life historical person. This is a tour-de-force.
First, the novel. Weaving the past with the present, using a century’s batch of letters to further her story, drawing the reader into the lives of her characters from the present and the past--truly, these are the hallmarks of a seasoned writer. Pleased am I to write that this book is going to become a favorite of mine. The title of the book? It directly relates to the story. There were bones she discovered as she was digging in her garden. The title is not like one of those book titles that really is clever but fails to bring to mind what the book is about. Do I really need to supply examples here?
Gerritsen is a physician. This book contains grizzly operating room scenes where handfulls of internal organs are pulled out of dead bodies and deposited quickly into buckets so as to not plop onto floors. How medicine was practiced, and learned, in the 19th century is a central feature of the book. Not a very pretty history the medical learning curve, yet the truth leads ultimately to solving serious health issues that were horrible then but their remedies are today accepted as common practice. Gerritsen deftly leads her reader along, crediting one of her characters with reforms that are undeniably normal procedure in today’s medical setting. I wash my hands after every visit to the restroom, I wash them after every session of digging in the dirt, again after chopping up a chicken; these are accepted standards of cleanliness. Such standards were not always known or accepted, were even scoffed at before common acceptance. This novel dwells on situations of cleanliness in the operating setting, but they are not oppressively drawn out in such a way as to make the reader say “enough, already”.
Second for consideration, how do I decide what I want to read? I have changed my standards over the years to accept the influence of the internet. Formerly, when I read a book I liked I would search the author’s other works and read them. This technique worked handily when I had access to the Main Library stacks at the University of Texas at Austin. I plowed through all the works of all the authors, sequentially, because they were all in the library.
So it seems I’ve always used a system of finding worthy books to read. Another system I used was recommendations I heard while listening to public radio. Then again when I was heavily into mysteries and discovered that various organizations made annual awards for their best of the year books, their selections became my criteria. With the rise of the internet I learned to sort through lists on Amazon which relied upon readers’ criteria. Lately, as I have been writing my own story I have read writer’s magazines and interviews with authors. Though I still can not locate the interview, that is how I stumbled upon Tess Gerritsen’s works.
Third point: how am I going to continue to find new authors of merit? The field is now strewn with so many best sellers whose books I’ve read and felt wasted my time that I’ve discarded the category of ‘best seller’ as a criterion. Interviews of authors on public radio frequently lead me to read works I’d normally miss, or not choose to read. Reviews of books I’ve heard on public radio often lead me to search for those books. Recommendations by friends often lead me to look at authors I’ve not read. Reading magazine articles by certain writers sometimes leads me to their other longer works. A couple of times, an interview of public television has led me to an author of interest.
Do I go to the library and browse for a title that looks interesting. Nope. Do I check out the New York best seller list? Yes. Do I follow up by selecting a book on the list? Not unless I recognize the author. Do I follow Oprah’s selections? Not after I read a couple of them and they were not that interesting.
I recently began writing myself after joining an organization that enourages women to write their memoirs. The network was founded by an author so I decided to read several of her books. They are what I consider light-weight mysteries, interesting because of their localized setting, and each one has a bit of a deeper message once past the chatty and high volume of characters. If I was into cooking there are many recipes scattered through the various books and that is fun. But am I gripped by the books, not really.
So I will now proceed through some of Tess Gerritsen’s writings, keeping an eye out for some of my favorite author’s latest publications. I’ll hope to be surprised by discovering an author of uncompromising worth as I daily pick up something good to read.(less)

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Jul 17, 2009 RNOCEAN rated it 4 of 5 stars

Present day: Julia Hamill has made a horrifying discovery on the grounds of her new home in rural Massachusetts: a skull buried in the rocky soil–human, female, and, according to the trained eye of Boston medical examiner Maura Isles, scarred with the unmistakable marks of murder. Boston, 1830: In order to pay for his education, medical student Norris Marshall has joined the ranks of local “resurrectionists”–those who plunder graveyards and harvest the dead for sale on the black market. But when...more

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Feb 12, 2013 Dyana rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was captivated by this intriguing story, but it's not for the squeamish. It's part present day but mostly historical fiction taking place in 1830's Boston. Present day: newly divorced Julia Hamill buys a ramshackle rural Victorian house; and while digging in the overgrown garden, discovers a set of bones. Dr. Maura Isles makes a brief visit, determines it's not an ME case, and turns it over to a forensic anthropologist who concludes the woman was murdered before Julia's house was ever built. D...more

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Feb 10, 2013 Eliza rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: mt-auburn-book-club, novel

2/10/2013: Every once in a while--during a big snowstorm, say?--there's nothing like an historical medical thriller to get me through! I read this novel for a book club I'm about to join; and I'm reminded how refreshing it is to read a book that someone else has chosen, so I can banish those overly serious nerdy angels on my shoulder who whisper in my ear "you shouldn't be reading this! It has a shiny pink cover!"

The novel is set in Boston, moves back and forth between the 1830s and the present...more

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Jun 12, 2011 Danni rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

By far the best of Gerritsen's books that I have read.

The book takes us back into the 1800's, looking at a life that has long since been forgotten. A young Irish girl, fresh off the boat watches in misery as her dear sister dies of childbirth fever. And when she refuses to hand over the child, a string of events is set into motion. A killer emerges, killing every nurse and doctor who stood watch as the girl shared the last of her secrets before she died. And the blame for these murders is placed...more

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Apr 23, 2010 Debby rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 5-star-books

Imagine a new homeowner is digging in her backyard garden and discovers a human skull buried there. The medical examinier unearths the remains and determines the person was murdered and buried there possibly a century or more ago. The previous homeowner had died and all the boxes of generations of papers, letters and newspapers that she had hoarded in the house had been sent to a relative in Maine. Something in these boxes may hold the key to the identity of the person, how she had died and how...more

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Aug 30, 2012 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars

I've put myself on a book diet so everything here on out should be from my stacks or borrowed from the library or other people.

This one is a library book. I have to say it makes me happy that my library lends ebooks. Just makes things so easy.

I like Gerritsen but I find I tend to skip over her books. This one was interesting and different than what I expected. In modern day, Julia is digging a garden in her new, rundown, backyard when she ends up striking a skull with her trowel. Cue dozens of m...more

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Feb 20, 2011 Saadia rated it 3 of 5 stars

I am a big fan of Terri Gerritsen's. I like her writing: precise with facts, yet fast paced with action and rich in atmosphere.

This story is sort of a romance, medical mystery, and killer fiend mixture set against the Boston medical community in the late 1820's. This story was okay. For some reason, I could not get drawn into it emotionally as I usually do... Maybe it was the early gory description of taking corpses out of coffins, slicing bodies open for dissection, etc. Then the filth and sten...more

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Jul 30, 2011 Athena rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the first book I've read by Gerritsen that involved not one, but two love stories. The Bone Garden starts out as a medical thriller during the 17th century in a hospital ward where many pregnant women are dying from a mysterious disease referred to as "childbed fever." A girl, Rose, and her sister, Aurnia introduce us to other main characters, like Norris Marshall, Dr. Sewall, Dr. Grenville, and Wendell Holmes. This cast becomes enmeshed with present day as newly divorced Julia, soon aft...more

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Apr 18, 2011 Clare K. R. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, historical, mystery, library

Would have given this 3.5 stars if I could. I would definitely have given it at least four stars if the novel had only been the historical parts of the book, without the modern-day parts.

The two sections just didn't mesh well. I suspect the author just wanted to include a modern-day section as a hook for readers who are used to her contemporary mysteries. The modern-day section only has two connections to the historical mystery: the main character finds one of the bodies in her garden, and some...more Would have given this 3.5 stars if I could. I would definitely have given it at least four stars if the novel had only been the historical parts of the book, without the modern-day parts.

The two sections just didn't mesh well. I suspect the author just wanted to include a modern-day section as a hook for readers who are used to her contemporary mysteries. The modern-day section only has two connections to the historical mystery: the main character finds one of the bodies in her garden, and some of the other characters are related to some of the major characters in the historical part. There are hints of a mystery in the modern-day part, but it never goes anywhere. In fact, after the first few chapters the modern-day part mostly consists of the characters going through letters and, apparently, learning exactly what we're reading in the historical chapters.

I was, somewhat surprisingly, disappointed by the revelation of the identity of the killer, (view spoiler)(less)

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Feb 16, 2012 Gina rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club, books-i-own-read, medical, mystery, mystery-crime, historical-fiction, part-of-a-series, suspense, women-of-mystery-club, thriller, 5-00-rating

Goodreads Description- Unknown bones, untold secrets, and unsolved crimes from the distant past cast ominous shadows on the present in the dazzling new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen.

Present day: Julia Hamill has made a horrifying discovery on the grounds of her new home in rural Massachusetts: a skull buried in the rocky soil–human, female, and, according to the trained eye of Boston medical examiner Maura Isles, scarred with the unmistakable marks of murder. But...more Goodreads Description- Unknown bones, untold secrets, and unsolved crimes from the distant past cast ominous shadows on the present in the dazzling new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen.

Present day: Julia Hamill has made a horrifying discovery on the grounds of her new home in rural Massachusetts: a skull buried in the rocky soil–human, female, and, according to the trained eye of Boston medical examiner Maura Isles, scarred with the unmistakable marks of murder. But whoever this nameless woman was, and whatever befell her, is knowledge lost to another time. . . .

Boston, 1830: In order to pay for his education, Norris Marshall, a talented but penniless student at Boston Medical College, has joined the ranks of local “resurrectionists”–those who plunder graveyards and harvest the dead for sale on the black market. Yet even this ghoulish commerce pales beside the shocking murder of a nurse found mutilated on the university hospital grounds. And when a distinguished doctor meets the same grisly fate, Norris finds that trafficking in the illicit cadaver trade has made him a prime suspect.

To prove his innocence, Norris must track down the only witness to have glimpsed the killer: Rose Connolly, a beautiful seamstress from the Boston slums who fears she may be the next victim. Joined by a sardonic, keenly intelligent young man named Oliver Wendell Holmes, Norris and Rose comb the city–from its grim cemeteries and autopsy suites to its glittering mansions and centers of Brahmin power–on the trail of a maniacal fiend who lurks where least expected . . . and who waits for his next lethal opportunity.

With unflagging suspense and pitch-perfect period detail, The Bone Garden deftly interweaves the thrilling narratives of its nineteenth- and twenty-first century protagonists, tracing the dark mystery at its heart across time and place to a finale as ingeniously conceived as it is shocking. Bold, bloody, and brilliant, this is Tess Gerritsen’s finest achievement to date.

"An 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 murder–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 child–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."

I loved this book! It was far better than anything I ever expected! Plus the fact that Maura Isles makes an appearance in the book made my day! I was up reading this book all night. I just couldn't put it down. Gerritsen uses a unique plotline that has a mystery to be solved in present day but it can only be solved by looking into the past and the history of Boston in the 1830's. Gerritsen definitely did her research well; I fell in love with both the actual history of medicine along with the historical fiction characters that were used to bring the story alive. The history of the medical field presented in this book was fascinating! Oliver Wendell Holmes was the person in history who discovered that diseases could be avoided if doctors washed their hands in between surgeries, procedures, and even autopsies. Washing your hands to avoid disease seems like such a "duh" fact that learning that in the 1830's they didn't even wash their hands after autopsies clearly astonished me and grossed me out! LOL! I loved how the story switched from present time to the 1830"s but the historical fiction part was the better story. I would highly recommend this to any Rizzoli and Isles or Tess Gerritsen fan. But I do have to give a warning- Gerritsen does use graphic details in telling of the graverobbers, murders, and medical scenes. If you have a weak stomach for those sorts of things, you have been forwarned. 5 stars all the way!!(less)

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About Tess Gerritsen

Internationally bestselling author Tess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, Tess went on to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was awarded her M.D.

While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction. In 1987, her first novel was published. Call After Midnight, a romantic thriller...more

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“Charles threw down the knife. Its thud was lost in the high-spirited bedlam of young men let loose upon a task so gruesome, the only sane response was perverse frivolity.” — 2 people liked it

“...men that age aren't known for their superior judgment.” — 2 people liked it

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