The Bone Garden: Amazon.co.uk: Tess Gerritsen: Books

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Product Description

Product Description
A gruesome secret is about to be unearthed ...When a human skull is dug up in a garden near Boston, Dr Maura Isles is called in to investigate. She quickly discovers that the skeleton - that of a young woman - has been buried for over a hundred years. But who was the young woman? And how did she die? It is the 1830s, and an impoverished medical student, Norris Marshall, is forced to procure corpses in order to further his studies in human anatomy. It's a gruesome livelihood that will bring him into contact with a terrifying serial killer who slips from ballrooms to graveyards and into autopsy suites. And who is far, far closer than Norris could ever imagine...

From the Publisher
This is a really special novel for Tess because it combines her detailed knowledge of the medical world (she was, of course, a doctor in her own right), her love of history and her gift for crime-writing.

It focuses on the single fact that in the 1840s women all over the world were dying in their millions of child-bed fever - and no one knew how or why the infection was being spread. The idea that surgeons - who were performing autopsies and then going into maternity wards without washing their hands - could be responsible was dismissed as scandalous - until a single doctor, Oliver Wendell Holmes, presented a paper on this subject in Boston in 1843. Holmes is one of the main characters in The Bone Garden, which also focuses on a terrifying serial killer who preys on medical students in particular. It is the novel Tess has always wanted to write.

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Customer Reviews

47 Reviews

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

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3.8 out of 5 stars (47 customer reviews)

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars squalor and pain, 12 Nov 2007

By	Dr. Robert A. Josey "mystery lover" (Scottish Highlands) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Bone Garden (Hardcover)

I haven't read Tess G before - and ordered this book in a large print edition because I was so intruiged by the premise. Then I read disappointing reviews of it on Amazon US.
I read it anyway - and was glad I did so. No, it's not really a page-turning mystery. And the ending is up to the individual reader to judge on its effectiveness.
The real suspense came from the depiction of the true medical horrors which existed in 1830. Doctors arriving straight from autopsy suites after handling diseased cadavers - then inspecting women in childbirth wards. Madness and ignorance. Tess G really handles this aspect of the book brilliantly.
Though it is not Charles Dickens - nor meant to be - she also gets across the poverty, pain and squalor in which her characters live. I was really moved by Rose Connolly's plight throughout.
In the end I read it as a novel rather than a thriller. But I learned a great deal from it and enjoyed it too. I would read another historical book from her.

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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bone-chilling stand-alone novel, 11 April 2008

By	OEJ (England) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Bone Garden (Hardcover)

For the first time in several years Tess Gerritsen has written a one-off novel, so there's no sign of Rizzoli and although Dr Maura Isles does get a mention, it's so insignificant as to be an indulgence on the author's part. Another cause for hesitancy before I hit the 'buy now' button was the knowledge that this story mostly takes place in the early 19th century, and not being one to buy any historical-style novels I did consider giving Tess's latest a miss. I'm glad I trusted her though, because I now realise that she did the right thing to take a break from Rizzoli, the timing was right, and there are enough autopsies to keep the fans of Dr Isles happy too - even if the images they portrayed were even more shocking then ever, such was the brutality and plain crudeness of the profession in Boston 180 years ago.

I wouldn't go as far as to call it a thriller however. Suspense levels were low but the overall style and flavour was different to anything from the Rizzoli series, and I found the atmospheric creations compelling, the characters and language authentic and above all I found the description of the early days of anatomical research and surgical techniques very interesting, if rather saddening. It made me realise how lucky we are today to have the luxuriously high standards of medical treatment and hospital safety that we do. This tale always held my attention, then, but mainly for the impression it gave that much of it was based on fact. It was almost like a fictionalised documentary, and I found the facts more compelling than the fiction. You could regard it as a testament not so much to the pioneering doctors and surgeons of that relatively primitive time, but to the countless victims of their research. If you like Tess Gerritsen's story-telling skills, this latest offering will not disappoint.

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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining Look at the Medicine and Mores of Boston in 1830, 8 Oct 2007

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Bone Garden (Paperback)

If you are a devoted Tess Gerritsen fan who loves Dr. Maura Isles using forensic anthropology to solve murders, please be aware that this book isn't in that vein. Instead, this book is more like a typical historical detective novel about murder in Victorian London by Anne Perry.

Ms. Gerritsen chooses to enrich her mystery by informing you about medical science of the time, before medical schools were well endowed with legal sources of cadavers and the germ theory of disease was unknown. If you don't care to learn about medicine in 1830, you'll probably think this is a two or three star book. If you have a weak stomach, you'll downgrade the book; there's a lot of pushing the gruesome and unpleasant in front of you for effect. Those looking for suspense rather than in intellectual puzzle should definitely look elsewhere.

A newly divorced woman, Julia Hamill, is digging the rocks out of her garden in Weston, Massachusetts when she uncovers a skull. The medical examiner's office is called and determines that this isn't a recent death. Julia wants to know how this skull came to reside on her property and finds clues through contact with the former owner's family. This leads to reading old papers that include letters from Oliver Wendell Holmes that describe a mystery from the 1830s.

From there, most of the book is spent in flashback. The flashback opens as a young mother, Aurnia, is having trouble giving birth while new mothers all around her are dying of childbed fever. Her doctor prescribes more bleedings, which only make her weaker. After a difficult forceps' delivery, the nurse immediately arranges to send the baby to the infant asylum because Aurnia is too weak to nurse and her husband has signed away rights to the baby. But Aurnia's sister, Rose Connolly, is determined to keep the baby.

We also meet Norris Marshall, the poor son of a Belmont, Massachusetts farmer who earns his medical school tuition and spending money by digging up the recently dead to provide cadavers for the medical school. He's a star in dissection because of his experience with animals. But he feels at a loss compared to his social superiors who are seeking medical degrees to gain a good livelihood or social position . . . or to please their families. One of his classmates is Oliver Wendell Holmes, the physician-poet father of the famous Supreme Court justice.

After the baby's birth, someone begins killing the medical and nursing staffs in a bizarre way. Suspicion soon falls on Norris who finds he needs Rose's help to clear his name. They soon find that they cannot trust anyone and are fighting for their very lives.

Dr. Gerritsen takes more of a physician's approach to this work than a novelist's view. Her characters are poorly developed in most cases. She relies on simple emotion (saving a new baby from harm) as the main appeal of the story while dragging you through all kinds of rottenness for shock's sake rather than story development. The story develops quite slowly in all of its dimensions.

If you have any familiarity with Boston and medicine in 1830, you won't find many surprises here. As a result, the plot becomes merely a scaffolding for unveiling what is already clear well in advance.

Why did I rate The Bone Garden as above average? I thought that the dual mysteries (pasts and present) were well integrated into a smooth combination that was satisfying. Having also worked with people who have old documents, I found that part of the current story to be very credible. Clearly, the book's design was a serious attempt to write a historical mystery with some educational content, and I thought that attempt also helped set the book above the average historical novel that I read.

Wash your hands!

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Slow to warm up but intriguing none the less
I love Tess Gerritsen's series with Rizzoli and Dr Isles so chanced this even though it was a break from the norm. Read more

Published 3 days ago by H. M. Griffiths

2.0 out of 5 stars Tragically forgettable
I'm a Gerritsen fan. Huge fan. She's the best crime writer out there in my opinion. But this is not a good book. I couldnt finish it (gutted. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Jack

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as thrilling as Tess' other stuff
I am a fairly recent fan of Gerritsen and worked my way very quickly through her previous works such as The Surgeon, The Apprentice, The Sinner and the wonderful Mephisto Club... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Lilly Penhaligon

5.0 out of 5 stars Tess Gerritsen at her best
I started reading Tess Gerritsen a couple of weeks ago and have now read almost all her books. Everyone of them are good and the Bone Garden is a fantastic read. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Ms. Attracta Redmond

2.0 out of 5 stars An ok read but not her best
I love Tess Gerritsen books but this one is unlike the others I have read. I also feel the back of the book was misleading by indicating Maura Isles as a character in it. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Maddybc

5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth the read - i found it hard to put this book down!
After reading the blurb for the book i was expecting a good book, but it was so much better than i had anticipated! Read more

Published 7 months ago by Steff.B

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting...
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. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Mrs. S. Payne

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Historical Thriller!
The Bone Garden starts off in the present day. Julia Hammill is clearing the garden of her new house in the outskirts of Boston, when she uncovers some old bones. Read more

Published 7 months ago by J.Flood

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing and repetitive
I scanned the reviews here looking for someone else who found the repetition of blood spots, stains, ragged hems, cracked leather shoes and above all that, oysters, but no one... Read more

Published 8 months ago by White Rose

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining
You can pretty much rely on Tess Gerritsen to weave a good tale (although I really didn't like 'The Mephisto Club) and this one is no exception. Read more

Published 8 months ago by Michael Watson

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The Bone Garden (Paperback)

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