My Reading Nook

A uniquely written book that is a tale within a tale. Tess Gerritsen takes us back to Boston of 1830 and the world of the “modern” medical student whose education and experience rely on cadavers obtained by grave robbers referred to as “resurrectionists“.

A horrifying murderer is stalking the streets and a young medical student is under suspicion as the murderer, but he’s innocent and events unfold to show who is the true perpetrator.

The story starts with Julia Hamill discovering a skeleton buried in the back yard of the house she’s just purchased. It’s determined that the woman was murdered and that her bones indicate the murder happened over 100 years earlier — before the house, which is 130 years old, was even built! By digging through the boxes of books and paperwork left by the previous and now dead owner, Julia with the help of Henry Page, the deceased’s brother who himself is in his eighties, find the letters written by the honourable Oliver Wendell Holmes (senior) which tell the tale of Rose, Margaret, Norris and the West End Reaper.

This story is very well written with the plots twisting in and out of each other. We don’t know until the very end who really is the West End Reaper and what his true reason for murder is. I’m not going to spoil the ending for you as you’ll want to read this one for yourself. Not only is it a gripping novel, it brings to light conditions for women during that age especially concerning childbirth and the way disease is transmitted.

The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen
ISBN 978-0-345-49761-1