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Group Read - The Bone Tree Fri Chapters 48-64 spoilers welcome
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After the last very intense segment this one is a bit of catching our breath at first.Chap 48
finds Penn reflexive and reading Kaiser's background on the Knox family in preparation for the DE interviews. Thank goodness Walt finds Melba alive, though no Tom. Caitlin makes him promise not to tell Penn she had talked to Tom. Walt seeks Tom, Caitlin seeks the Bone Tree.
Chap 49
Caitlin and Jordan on the Bone Tree quest, their informant doesn't show, sends a young black kid with a hand drawn rough map for $1000 or $500 but no escort. Deputy Carl Sims and pilot Danny McDavitt will take them up - helicopter. And Forrest calms down an irrational Billy Byrd preventing the sheriff from storming the safe house where Peggy and Annie are staying.
Chap 50
Penn at home with Annie and Peggy
Chap 51
Bone Tree stories from Carl, Penn recites some of the Knox family military history from WWII (Frank Sr taking and selling human trophies), Korea (Snake, ten years younger), Vietnam (Forrest and Frank Jr) torture and killing, family traditions. Walt following Forrest.
Chap 52
The missing Meth stash not under Walker's house is discovered by deputy Hiram who had planted it. Walker arrests him. Forrest tells Devereaux to get to the jail since Walker is not discredited.
Chap 53
Penn is at the sheriff's, six double eagles there. No Claude, no Walker at first, then he comes in triumphant v with meth evidence he planted on snake and double eagles, he almost strangled Snake. Caitlin and Jordan are in the air over the swamp, federal land next to Valhalla.
Chap 54
Walt in the house above Forrest and Ozen. Forrest fumes andv plots retribution for the people defying him. Walt flees the house. Snake sends Forrest a rude message and he has Tom
Chap 55
Kaiser, Walker, Penn decide strategy who to interrogate first. Walk texts news Tom is taken so Kaiser can interview first. Forrest after Claude (on run) and seeking Tom again.
Chap 56
Contentious interrogation of Snake, shaken by what Kaiser knows. Walker and Penn try Sonny no rules. Calls Carl Sims to flyover Valhalla so Caitlin and Jordan out of chopper into Mose's boat.
Chap 57
Penn angry with Caitlin, but two way street. Sonny finally reveals where Tom was taken, his fishing camp, tied up, bad shape. Sonny interrogated again, torture? Kaiser finds out, kicks Walker and Penn and Walt out.
Chap 58
Walt and Penn to search for Tom at Sonny's fishing camp, but no Tom. Sonny's footlocker had Jimmy Revels' tattoo. Penn confronts Forrest at the lake house, hand shake "deal" for Tom.
Chap 60
Caitlin and Jordan in swamp boat. They first smell and then find a dead body. Penn shows Kaiser the tattoo, they use it to get Sonny willing to reveal details if family safe. Forrest knows Sonny is willing to consider talking and he locates Claude Devereaux
Chap 61
Another very intense chapter. Caitlin is crazy and goes into swamp water to id the body to see if Tom. She is nuts.
Kaiser is crazed to get JFK details from Sonny for Dwight before surgery. Sonny reveals some DE names but not on tape, says Tom killed Viola
Chap 62
Wilma Deen (Glenn Morehouse's sister) and Alois Engle are planning to fire bomb the safe house where Peggy and Annie are guarded by Kirk Boisseau and James Ervin
Chap 63
Another whopper of a chapter
Chap 63Intense and detailed, Sonny after talking to his grandson, reveals details of who /what /when /how of the JFK assassination. Says Tom knew nothing of why Tom needed a sick note for work then. Penn leaves, Sonny has a deal.
Chap 64
This is a tough decision for Caitlin. She is given a multi tool by Jordan who heads to New Orleans and Caitlin has to decide to go back to the newspaper or keep looking for the Bone Tree
Doing another posting drive-by before I've finished this section to say: are you kidding me? Caitlin dives into the polluted water to examine a disintegrating corpse to make sure it isn't Tom Cage? C'mon, now!!!
That dive takes the word "polluted" to an all new level, Carol!! I "got it" that she was compelled to discover if it was Tom, but to not only go into the water, but to get her face right up next to it ~underwater~...... eeeuuuwww.
Carol/Bonadie wrote: "Doing another posting drive-by before I've finished this section to say: are you kidding me? Caitlin dives into the polluted water to examine a disintegrating corpse to make sure it isn't Tom Cag..."
Exactly. That seem both had me disgutsted AND thing "come on Greg, this is testing my ability to suspend disbelief." I just didn't believe it. No, Caitlin isn't a shrinking violet, but yuk!! You can't wait for the police team to confirm? I just didn't believe it.Ann wrote: "
That dive takes the word "polluted" to an all new level, Carol!!
I "got it" that she was compelled to discover if it was Tom, but to not only go into the water, but to get her face right up next to it ~underwater~...... eeeuuuwww...."
Things are really picking up now, in this section and the next. There are so many different fronts of action my head is whiplashing from one scene to the next. Annie and Peggy, the jail and courthouse, the swamp, Valhalla, Quentin's house, etc., etc/ Boy, how does Iles keep it all straight?
I loved seeing Carl Sims and Danny back on the scene, and have references back to the earlier book where they were more front and center.
Iles is definitely testing my fortitude with all the talk of John and Forrest's wartime exploits, and the torture of the black victims over the years. The description of that removed tattoo and showing it to Sonny nearly did me in!
I am not happy with Kaiser or Penn or Walker or Walt at this point (in addition to Caitlin and Tom). They are all off the rails it seems, and going off half-cocked. I hope Iles knows what he's doing, LOL.
The lack of trust among the "good guys" was maddening to me too, Carol. I get why Tom is keeping secrets in a general way. I get why Penn is disappointed in his dad overall. I get that telling all to law enforcement might not end well with some "off the books" activity, but the people trying to keep Tom alive have a shared purpose, so good grief, communicate with each other, people! I have a personal bias against the journalistic code that keeps important information away from people working to solve a crime. I always have. Other authors have annoyed me with journalists who can't see the forest for the trees in search of a scoop.
I give Henry Sexton broad latitude in his quest for the truth, and that he couldn't trust many people, but after his death, with the FBI eager to help, working off the grid in this vipers nest as Caitlin is doing I just don't get it.
this is a mild spoiler for the next section in terms of Caitlin's attitude, but somewhere between this section and next I think she moves from "I live for the story" to "Doing what's right is what matters here."
Carol/Bonadie wrote: "Doing another posting drive-by before I've finished this section to say: are you kidding me? Caitlin dives into the polluted water to examine a disintegrating corpse to make sure it isn't Tom Cag..."LOL, carol- same reaction from me. in fact, caitlin makes quite a few TSTL moments.
Carol/Bonadie wrote: "Things are really picking up now, in this section and the next. There are so many different fronts of action my head is whiplashing from one scene to the next. Annie and Peggy, the jail and court..."and how do we? i am a bit confused, but just rolling with the flow as i read.
Sherry wrote: "and how do we? i am a bit confused, but just rolling with the flow as i read. ..."
That's it, Sherry. I was like a shark, just moving ahead and trusting that the details I needed to have stick would be there when I needed them...
The first to post could please summarize this segment to guide the discussion.