THEM BONES

5 stars out of 5

Jumping into a series for the first time usually brings mixed emotions for me. If I like the book, I'm happy I found it but sad that I missed those that came before (in this case, 21 of them). The happy side, though, brings another plus: the book can stand alone well enough that I "got" it without feeling left out - otherwise I'd have been frustrated.

This book is one of the happy ones. And yes, I hope to meet up with private investigator Rushmore McKenzie again (and again). This story has extra appeal to me because it involves some real science and a missing dinosaur skeleton (well, not the whole animal, just the skull). I mean, who on earth knew there's a market for dinosaur heads? 

The whole caper started as a return favor; some time ago, Angela Bjork saved McKenzie from almost certain death somewhere in the desert. Now, she's working on a Ph.D. in palentology. On an archeological dig in the Great Plains of Montana - where she rescued McKenzie - she unearthed an Ankylosaurus fossil at the center of the story. Okay, not a critter I've ever even heard of. So other than for history's sake, why is it a story? Well, because somebody - or a couple of somebodies - made off with the skull that had been placed in a truck for transport to a museum. 

Besides the historical significance, some estimates place its value in the millions, so getting it back (and hopefully in the process catching the thieves) is important - especially to Angela. So, she asks McKenzie to help. He agrees, and in turn taps some of his friends and a couple of acquaintences who owe him favors to join the investigation. Some of these folks, no doubt, I'd have appreciated more had I read previous installments, but not having done so really didn't impact my enthusiasm. The rest of the book follows the attempts to locate the skull and return it to its rightful owners. It's quite an undertaking, with more than a few twists and turns (not all in the right direction). Of course, how it all turns out is for me to know and encourage other readers to find out for themselves. Well done, and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to discover a new, very enjoyable series by way of a pre-release copy.

Them Bones by David Housewright (Minotaur Books, June 2025); 317 pp.