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museoffire 's review for:
The Bones of You
by Debbie Howells
Oh this was so very sad. It's not often that a mystery leaves one feeling so broken hearted for its characters. I think that great grande dame of the English mystery, Ms. Agatha Christie herself, would have been quite impressed with Debbie Howell's own take on the darkness that hides within all human hearts in her excellent debut.
I admit to finding myself a touch baffled by the twists and turns I took before reaching the end of this heart breaker of a tale that concerns the death of Rosie, a young girl in a small English village. The reader goes down the usual roads of "did the boyfriend do it?" or "maybe it was the husband" and there were a couple of characters that felt a little too much like they'd been inserted for the sake of exposition, the reporter friend who just happens to work for a really great magazine that actually does only want to tell real, honest stories that are fair to everyone (that was a stretch) for example. But Howells really did manage to interweave the stories of two very different women, each with a life the other envies, with quite the expert hand. Nothing was overt in the budding friendship of despondent mother Jo and well meaning Kate and thus as the relationship begins to unravel as the truth is revealed the reader is left with more of a feeling of sadness and regret than one of horror which seems entirely appropriate and real in this case.
There's also a really top notch decision on the part of Ms. Howell's that really make this stand out from the typical mystery and that is Rosie's lost and lovely ghost who haunts every chapter and follows her loved ones as they try to learn the truth.
Though it might take a page out of "The Lovely Bones" I think Ms. Howells actually does a much finer job of really weaving Rosie into the story. Her connection to her beloved sister Delphine and her empathy with her hopelessly damaged mother Jo is full of passion and grief but never comes off as melodramatic.
What finally put this book firmly in the camp of those I'll readily recommend to my patrons was its sweet, sweet ending. To have Rosie take into her arms the daughter she would never know in life and have that be the point at which she is finally able to let go of the world was nothing short of earth shattering. It was just beautifully written. It doesn't make what happened okay or understandable but it leaves the reader with a sense that Rosie will go on to a peace she didn't have much chance of knowing in life.
We often have to forget the victim in typical crime thrillers. We're caught up in the mistaken identities and the red herrings and whether the butler did it. Ms. Howells doesn't let us forget and I'm quite grateful for that.
I admit to finding myself a touch baffled by the twists and turns I took before reaching the end of this heart breaker of a tale that concerns the death of Rosie, a young girl in a small English village. The reader goes down the usual roads of "did the boyfriend do it?" or "maybe it was the husband" and there were a couple of characters that felt a little too much like they'd been inserted for the sake of exposition, the reporter friend who just happens to work for a really great magazine that actually does only want to tell real, honest stories that are fair to everyone (that was a stretch) for example. But Howells really did manage to interweave the stories of two very different women, each with a life the other envies, with quite the expert hand. Nothing was overt in the budding friendship of despondent mother Jo and well meaning Kate and thus as the relationship begins to unravel as the truth is revealed the reader is left with more of a feeling of sadness and regret than one of horror which seems entirely appropriate and real in this case.
There's also a really top notch decision on the part of Ms. Howell's that really make this stand out from the typical mystery and that is Rosie's lost and lovely ghost who haunts every chapter and follows her loved ones as they try to learn the truth.
Though it might take a page out of "The Lovely Bones" I think Ms. Howells actually does a much finer job of really weaving Rosie into the story. Her connection to her beloved sister Delphine and her empathy with her hopelessly damaged mother Jo is full of passion and grief but never comes off as melodramatic.
What finally put this book firmly in the camp of those I'll readily recommend to my patrons was its sweet, sweet ending.
We often have to forget the victim in typical crime thrillers. We're caught up in the mistaken identities and the red herrings and whether the butler did it. Ms. Howells doesn't let us forget and I'm quite grateful for that.