Bruce Gargoyle's Reviews > Beastly Bones

Ten Second Synopsis:
Abigail and Jackaby are called in to consult when a lady's cats seem to be morphing into another species entirely. When said lady is found dead within days of the visit, the pair are drawn into a mystery that may have explosive consequences.

This particular book was a huge disappointment after the cracking opening story, but I'm not giving up on this series yet. Beastly Bones lacked the charm and novelty of the first book in the series, and, most dispiriting of all, the most interesting parts of the book - the inexplicable murder and Jenny the ghost's complete freakout - are completely ignored in favour of mythical beast hunting. I found the middle section of the book, which dealt with the discovery of gigantic, mystery fossils to be interminably boring and it seemed particularly odd that the author spent so much time developing the characters and backstory of the two archaeologists in the story at the expense of developing suspense or highlighting the murders connected with the archaeological dig.


The final few chapters do bring things back into line and the protagonists finally see their way to making strides on the murders and who might be behind them. This was the best part of the book for me because even though it was only a chapter or two, the suspense was suddenly back. While this offering was a big thumbs down generally from me, I am excited to see what happens in the third book because there are hints that Jackaby and Rook will be back on the trail of deadly, secretive murderers, or at least finding out more about Jenny the ghost, rather than gadding about in the dirt with bones.