Wed 27 Apr 2016
A Mystery Review by Barry Gardner: AARON ELKINS – Make No Bones.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[4] Comments
AARON ELKINS – Make No Bones. Gideon Oliver #7. Mysterious Press, hardcover, 1991; paperback, 1994.
The seven books about forensic anthropologist Dr. Gideon Oliver make up one of the more agreeable of the wave of “specialist” mystery series that have proliferated over th elast several years. While I — and I’m sure Elkins — regret the disfigurement that television visited upon his creation, the books themselves have retained their charms and readability.
Here Oliver, his wife Julie, and FBI friend John Lau are attending a forensic anthropologists’ conference in Bed Oregon, at the Museum of Natural History there. The bones of a famous anthropologist — as well-hated personally as was respected professionally, and who was killed in an accident at a conference there ten years earlier — are to be installed in a permanent display in the museum.
First the bones are stolen,. then a ten year.old body is discovered in a shallow grave, and then another `murder occurs. Are all these things. connected? Can the “bone doctor” help piece together the puzzle using his forensic skills? Of course, you silly thing.
Elkins’ books make no pretense to being great literature, or anything else other than well-crafted light entertainment. If you 1onging for brooding atmosphere, seat-gripping suspense, or intricate psychological portraits of tortured souls, you’re on the wrong pew; often, the books have almost a “cozy” feel. The neighborhood you’re in features good unadorned writing, reasonable plots, characters you cab enjoy, and more often than not a very good sense of place. Oliver’s base is in the Pacific Northwest. Elkins lives there, loves it, and does well by it in his stories.
Unless your taste in mysteries is limited to the dark and grim, I think you’ll like these. Recommended.
Bibliographic Notes: Make No Bones was an Agatha Award Best Novel nominee for 1991. There are now 18 books in this series, with the most recent, Switcheroo, having a 2016 publication date. A complete list can be found here, along with all of Elkins’ other books, including three other series and three standalones.
April 27th, 2016 at 4:25 pm
A good summation of Elkins’ strengths and limits. I found the books very good early on, tired a little about mid-series, but then they — or I — picked up again at the end.
Potentially there was nothing wrong with Lou Gossett’s casting, it just never really seemed as if they read anything of the books beyond the character’s name and the basic concept of what he did for a living.
They kept trying to turn him into Indiana Jones, detective.
April 28th, 2016 at 6:32 am
In 1992 I discovered Elkins and raced through the first seven in the Oliver series, culminating with this one, in a couple of months. Then…for whatever reason I just stopped reading him and my few attempts to go back and continue with the series have failed utterly. I guess my tastes just changed somewhere along the line, but …it is what it is.
Your mileage may vary.
April 29th, 2016 at 7:54 pm
Cozy is a good word to describe Elkins’ novels, including those he wrote with with his wife Charlotte, including the Lee Ofsted golfing mysteries.
The ones in the Oliver series that I have read have been weak on the mystery, but still fun to read — if you don’t overdo it, and Jeff, it sounds as though you did, and in a big way.
April 30th, 2016 at 7:12 am
Like David, I read the early Elkins novels but stopped as the mysteries became too cozy for my tastes.