Bone by Bone by Carol OConnell

Bone by Bone Reviews

• 
  LJ

  BONE BY BONE (Psy Mys-Oren Hobbs-No. Calif-Cont) - Ex
  O’Connell, Carol – Standalone
  Putnam, 2008, US Hardcover – ISBN: 9780399155147
  
  First Sentence: A batty old man of the cloth had once described the Hobbs boy as a joke of god’s: an archangel of the warrior cast and a beacon for women with carnal intentions.
  
  Almost 20 years ago, 17-year-old Oren Hobbs and his younger brother Josh, went into the woods. Oren came home but Josh was never found. Told that his father is dying by the housekeeper who has been with the family since early childhood, Oren resigns his position as investigator for the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division and returns home. His father is fine but bones belonging to Josh are being left on the front porch, one at a time.
  
  O’Connell didn’t start her writing career until her 40s and after a career as a painter, proof reader and copy editor, skills which are apparent in her writing. She knows how to hook the reader from the first sentence; without a prologue or a single portent.
  
  I’m delighted to add. Her humor is slightly off center, which I appreciate. “It had been her mission to save him from literacy and send him outdoors in search of a life.” “…why does the town have so many loonies?” “Tolerance.”
  
  To me, it is the since of a fine writer who can create an eccentric cast of characters but, without manipulation, justify each one. The characters are fully developed but in an artist’s way of creating layer upon layer until the full representations are clear. The characters drive the story, and there are some wonderful characters. But they also show how our foibles and the constraints we often put on ourselves by not saying things out loud can cause great damage to ourselves and to others.
  
  The story is very well plotted. This is not a fast-paced, quick read, but one with intrigue and as intricate as the tango which occurs late in the story. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen blood drawn on a dance floor.” A hint of magic and mysticism only add to the feeling that should one find this town in a map, one would be wise to drive around it.
  
  O’Connell has such a deliciously subtle style that plays with your emotions and provides an ending that is both heartbreaking yet filled with promise.
  
• 
  audrey

  I keep having this strange problem with sharks.
  
  See, sharks are kind of awesome, at least in the abstract. It's really cool that they're these huge predators that swim around eating people and seals and generally being all badass and having movies made about them, but think about this: the average adult female great white is 14 feet long.
  
  Now, stop right there and take a moment with me. You're what, six feet tall? I'm closer to five, and a Vanagon is seven feet long.
  
  In other words, the average female great white is the length of two Vanagons. Picture that.
  
  Picture a shark the size of two Vanagons, parked one after the other. Picture it in your living room, taking up most of the space, filling it with deadly shark. Just lying there, mouth open, waiting. And realize you have to get past the jaws to make it to the bathroom.
  
  Like, once you get past the romantic view of sharks, they're actually really terrifying.
  
  And it's exactly the same with this book.
  
  For the most part, it's a really enjoyable Twin Peaks-style small-town murder mystery, quirky and beautiful, but whenever you look up from reading it, you realize how horrible the actual story is and how foul all the characters' deeds are.
  
  Beautiful, funny, incredibly sad and ultimately terrifying.
  
  The first night, I stayed up reading this book until my eyes no longer focused. And all I could think were: you little a-holes. Do you know how much I spend on you at the optometrist NOT to have crap like this happen? Get it together! But alas, they were implacable. And blurry.
  
  Tonight I finished it. And I can tell you: no one makes it to the bathroom.
• 
  Caitlin

  I really like Carol O'Connell's Mallory series of books & enjoyed her other stand-alone book,
  Judas Child, so I picked this one up with anticipation. I enjoyed this book, but not quite as much as her others.
  
  This is a gothic confection of a tale about two brothers who go into the woods with only one returning & what happens 20 years later when Oren, the surviving brother returns home to find that his missing brother is returning home - bone by bone.
  
  The opening chapters and setup are great. There are some wonderful eccentrics populating the small town of Coventry, CA where the action takes place. There is one scene late in the book, depicting a dance between two characters who were once lovers that is breathtaking & this small set of 3-4 paragraphs alone would be worth the read.
  
  There are some downsides. The book is ultimately more plot than character - sharp departure from O'Connell's other books. In particular, O'Connell seems too distanced from her central characters, Oren & Josh, making them less interesting than some more fleshed out minor characters which makes the impetus of the whole thing less interesting. O'Connell's writing and plotting seem much less precise here than in any of her other books. The plot tends to wander about an awful lot in ways that seem more calculated than natural - another difference between this and her other books.
  
  For all that, this is a fun read & should tide Mallory fans over until the next one in that series.
• 
  Lιƈíɳια

  Com uma escrita fluída, sem descrições longas e aborrecidas, sem pontos mortos e sempre muito apelativa torna-se uma leitura agradável e sempre interessante .
  A autora leva-nos pela cidade de Coventry , recheada de personagens, os habitantes, que bem poderiam ser reais de tão normais que são. É uma leitura em que se vai a uma velocidade calma, assim com os habitantes de Coventry conduzem pela cidade, mas cheia de mistérios que cada personagem tem os seus segredos, os seus lados obscuros...todos têm o seus "esqueltos" no armário. Um livro que nos prende até ao final.
• 
  Jim

  Almost 1/3 of the way through & this just isn't working for me. None of the characters or their motivations made any sense. Maybe they would clear up eventually, but the wording feels forced too often. It's as if he finds a favorite phrase which is a cylinder & hammers it into a square hole. It goes in, but it's not a great fit. The narrator was pretty good most of the time, but when he tried to change character voices, some guys came out squeaking like Minnie Mouse. Unpleasant.
  
  I have too many other books that I want to listen to.
• 
  Una Tiers

  Although the start was interesting, and the core characters were likable, things changed. The next group of characters were horrible and I lost interest in the book.
• 
  Glenda Bixler

  Bone to Bone
  By Carol O’Connell
  Penguin Group
  340 Pages
  
  
  When I selected Bone to Bone by Carol O’Connell, I was expecting a forensics-based mystery. But I’d just read The Family Bones by Kimberly Raiser and was surprised by its storyline; so I was not ”too” surprised when O’Connell’s book turned out to be a “whodunit.” A fantastic one, to say the least!
  
  O’Connell has so many relevant clues thrown into the story that you just begin to think you know who did the deed...and then she proceeds to build up the case for another character and you change your mind again! Although I was not totally surprised to discover in the last chapter who had actually committed the murder, I must say that I enjoyed the suspense much more than actually learning who it was!
  
  What murder? Ahhhh, let me tell you how this story begins! A human lower jawbone is thrown onto the porch of retired Judge Henry Hobbs. The bone was found by Oren Hobbs, the judge’s son, who he had not seen for close to 20 years, since his father had sent him away.
  
  Hannah, who was the housekeeper and the only mother he had known since his own had died, had summoned Oren home, implying that the Judge was very ill. Oren soon found that the jawbone was just the latest bone that had been left...there had been many others and the Judge had begun to sleepwalk due to his worry. But Hannah had not told Oren the truth. Instead, once Oren was home, she purposely did not give the Judge his medication and she arranged it so that they sat watching as Henry went through the house and then tried to get out and tried to drive his car, all prevented by locks and hidden keys.
  
  Now Oren faced the reason he had been sent away. Many years ago, he and his brother Josh had gone into the woods together. Josh had never come back!
  
  While away from his family, Oren had joined the army and had become a crime investigation specialist. There was no way that he was not going to investigate the bones, verify whose they were and finally find what had happened to Josh. When the bones had started to be left on the porch, the Judge had purchased a coffin and placed it in Josh’s old bedroom. There he had arranged each bone, assuming they were the bones of his youngest son. But Oren quickly saw the truth—there were bones from more than one body!
  
  There in the small town of Coventry, where a witchboard was used weekly to have Josh speak to town members on behalf of the dead, and where the town library was never used because the librarian had murdered her husband and never been convicted of it. There Oren worked with the law and outside of the law to try to put the pieces together as to what happened to Josh!
  
  This is the best whodunit I’ve ever read! The novel reads like a literary documentary, sharing each bit of news happening in Coventry and then considering which of its many strange and troubled inhabitants may be the murderer...this time...
  
  Readers, if this sounds like your kind of book, believe me, you’ll love it!
  
  G. A. Bixler
  For Amazon Vine
  
  
  
• 
  Doug Beatty

  Oren Hobbs returns home after years in the army. He discovers his father is being terrorized by someone who is leaving human bones on the front porch of the family home. As Oren's brother Josh had disappeared years earlier, Oren is convinced that these bones are Josh, finally returning home. Oren quickly notices that the collected bones do not match, indicating that there is more than one skeleton out there. O'Connell creates some really creepy characters in the small town, all harboring a myriad of secrets. The town librarian Mavis is a formidable and scary personage, causing most of the townfolk to steer clear of the library all together. Mysterious William Swahn never seems to leave his secluded house after winnign a law suit years earlier. He also may have been involved in investigating the crime. The town sheriff is quite inept, did he bungle the investigation years before? Even Oren's housekeeper Hannah does not seem to have a past, but instead has just materialized from nowhere. The book pulls you to an ending that is shocking and exciting, making this one a great summer read
• 
  Sarah

  Rating 3,5
  
  I think I would have liked this slightly better if Oren could just ask people real questions, rather than be cryptic and then shut his mouth when he could have gotten somewhere. It doesn't let the story keep pace. He is supposed to be this skilled former investigator, but there are no traces of that.
  
  And who the F wants to date someone that tries to kill you on the regular, rather than talk to you? Oren, apparently....
  
  It is insanely interesting though, I think I suspected everyone there for a bit. Don't think I was entirely wrong there either...
  
• 
  Cat

  Credo! Nunca tinha lido nada desta autora e não sei se voltarei a ler.
  
  Chateia-me quando um livro começa bem, para, rapidamente, perceber que a história não está muito bem construída.
  
  A verdade é que não percebi grande coisa do que se ia passando. Só mesmo no final é que tudo faz sentido, mas não parece ter muito a ver com tudo o que foi contado nas páginas anteriores.
  
  Foi estranho ler este livro. A sinopse parecia prometer muito mas o que foi entregue deixou um bocado a desejar.
  
  E ainda estou para perceber o que foi toda a bizarria da relação do Oren e da Isabelle. A mulher, que já deve andar pelos trinta e qualquer coisa anos, tenta matar o homem sempre que o vê. E o motivo? Meu Deus! Se eu tivesse instintos assassinos de cada vês que visse o primeiro rapaz de quem gostei e que me ignorou, mais valia internarem-me imediatamente.
  
  Também não achei a explicação do crime por aí além de interessante e o motivo pareceu-me de uma falta de originalidade atroz. É um livro de quase 400 páginas, caramba! A autora bem que podia ter-se esforçado mais.
  
  Enfim, mais um livro com potencial... Que decepção!
• 
  Laura

  I found this story okay. It was not terrible, nor fabulous. The basics of the mystery plot were good, but I expected more from all of the mystery build up than I got.
  
  I think there were too many distracting sub-plots and detailed back-stories for the peripheral characters and not enough for the main ones. Very confusing structure!
  
  I never understood the reasons for the sherriff's incompentence and secretiveness, nor why he would hire Dave as a deputy when everyone knew him to be mean-spirited and a drunk.
  
  And the relationship between Oren and Isabelle is just weird, her trying to injure and kill him repeatedly over 20 year old hurt feelings? And he accepts it as normal? Very strange. I definitely expected more from that story than there was! He left her standing alone on a dance floor at 13 years old and embarrassed her. Sure, any normal, healthy 35 year old woman would still harbor blood lust over that...
• 
  Tracy

  Like other reviews has said, in the middle you start to get ansty with the slow pace of information being doled out. I liked that there were lots of possible motives, but none of them (including the real one) was fleshed out enough. Despite the shallow story lines, the book was too long. In places, it reminded me of older books when psychology was just becoming understood and characters did all kinds of things that were chalked up to traumatic events in their lives, which caused them to go crazy. Back then, you might have accepted that people broke that easily. Now, it just seems trite.
• 
  Samantha Smith

  I wasn't too intrigued by much that happened, and while I didn't hate the book, it wasn't something I'd pick up outside of a quick read. I enjoyed the depth of the characters the most but wished the story had a little bit more foreshadowing.
• 
  Roberta

  Il caso mi è davvero piaciuto!! Non mi aspettavo tutti quei retroscena dietro il rituale! Mi ha davvero impressionata e presa parecchio!! Poi l'abilità e lo stile di Carol è sempre impeccabile!!
• 
  Bibliophile

  Oren Hobbs and his brother Josh went into the woods around the isolated town of Coventry, California, one afternoon. Oren came back out, but his brother never did. Now, twenty years later, Josh has returned too - or rather, pieces of him (the titular bones) have been returned to his father and Oren, who became a CID investigator in the Army has also returned to Coventry to finally figure out the mystery of his brother's disappearance.
  
  From this promising, if grisly beginning, Carol O'Connell weaves a totally unbelievable tale that requires a Brigadoon-like setting (no one has cellphones in this town, although the mystery is supposedly taking place in the current day, and every character is a Character - amiably or terrifyingly eccentric.) There are so many subplots that are never resolved and the resolution of who killed Josh (who, by the way, sounds incredibly annoying!) seems totally arbitrary.
  
  All this would have been OK had it not been for an absolutely ludicrous romantic subplot, in which a woman now in her thirties attempts to avenge herself constantly on a man who jilted her advances when they were both teenagers by trying to kill him. Everyone around them thinks that this is a sure sign they should get married, even though there are at least three other plots in the book about spouses killing their husbands and/or wives where the attempted murders/murders are not out of particularly amiable motivations. UGH! What a disappointing and ridiculous novel!
• 
  Bonnie Morse

  It's rare that I read a mystery, and even more rare that I like it. This book isn't quite a unicorn--it took about 50 pages to really get into the story and start caring about the characters--but it's pretty special. There are almost too many characters, we seem to know every person in the small town of Coventry, and even now I don't quite have them all straight. But once we got acquainted, as soon as it started to matter that Josh was a sweet little boy, that his brother Oren's life effectively ended on the day Josh died; most of all when we realize that a lot of people know a lot of things that they've never said aloud, and for all the wrong reasons; I couldn't put it down. For real. I'm supposed to have been in bed an hour ago.
  
  Even Belle's over the top physical assaults on Oren make sense once they're explained. The whole small town quirkiness wasn't working for me, but O'Connell pulled it out. She did everything I hate about mysteries and did it so well that I couldn't get enough. The plot fell together with very little deliberate stretching and while I was disappointed in the ending, it was the disappointment of reality--knowing that children have certainly died for less. Considering Josh Hobbs has been dead 20 years when the story starts, O'Connell does an amazing job of making us feel like we knew him, and what his family has been feeling since he's been gone. What they'll always feel as their lives go on without him, the mystery solved but Josh no more alive for it.
• 
  Lynn Pribus

  Read this book in a hurry on a cross-country flight to visit my sister. She is in a mystery book club and we met yesterday for lunch and discussion. I enjoyed the book.
  
  Not sure how this writer has stayed under my radar -- she is very polished, creating interesting characters. This is a stand-alone novel, she also has a series female protagonist and I will seek her out when I get home.
  
  Jan 15, 2013 Hmmm. I have absolutely NO memory of this book at all which is strange. I wonder if I read something with a similar title. I do see I read it "in a hurry" and at any rate I'm enjoying it all over again. This time it's an audiobook and nicely read. The part about the bones appearing one by one on the porch isn't gruesome at all.
  
  1/28/13 Well, as I read some things did ring a bell -- the seances in the cabin in the woods, for example -- but didn't remember the plot at all. Nicely written, almost literary, with interesting characters. There was scene near the end on a staircase which I found quite repulsive and it was not redeemed, but overall, an excellent read. Still 4 stars.
• 
  Helen

  I have never read this author before but was hoping from the jacket review to have found a new mystery author/series I could love. Completely disappointed. I did read the whole thing but just thought all the characters and their actions were completely implausible. ESP disliked the "love interest" character. Also thought it was ridiculous the way all the characters seemed to know more than they were letting on, without any reason to be holding back. Was this child not a loved member of the community? Even more bizarre was the fact his did not seem to frustrate, surprise or anger the brother who was investigating the death! This was particularly true with the housekeeper -- at one pint at the end the brother realizes she knows who killed the boy, says as much to her, but does not just ask point blank, "whodunnit?" apparently it was more important for everyone to drop little clues and make a game of it.
  
• 
  Kate

  Um no. More like badly written romance than crime or mystery. Pass, thanks.
• 
  Donna

  Twenty years ago, brothers Oren and Josh Hobbs went into the woods but only Oren came out. After a fruitless search, Judge Hobbs sent Oren away. Now, freshly out of the Army where he received a master's degree in forensic science, Oren returns home.
  
  Someone has been leaving Josh's bones on the front porch at night, one bone at a time. I immediately wanted answers about what happened to Josh and who is bringing the bones.
  
  This book from 2009 is filled with quirky characters: the sheriff, Isabelle, Addison, Swahn, Sarah, Ferris, Mrs Hardy, widow Evelyn and Agent Polk - -almost every character in the story. The sleepwalking and Ouija board are not the subjects that I usually read in my everyday mysteries. My favorite character was Hannah. Although she was only 4 feet, 9 inches, she was a giant in authority. The face of the actress who plays Hetty in NCIS-Los Angeles kept popping into my mind whenever Hannah spoke and made me like the story more. I liked this book because of the quirkiness.
• 
  Linda Robinson

  A standalone book by the Mallory series author that is every bit as addictive as those novels. Oren Hobbs has returned to the northern California town of Coventry, populated by folks who have wandered into the village from other places they'd rather not talk about, and stayed. 20 years ago Oren and his brother Joshua went into the woods. Only Oren came out. Retired Judge Hobbs and the Hobbs housekeeper Hannah Rice are keeping a secret that is revealed Oren's first morning home when a thump on the porch awakens him to the return of his brother Joshua. Bone by bone. O'Connell at her best, atmospheric and terrifying.
• 
  Audrey

  Wow! What a wild ride this book is, Carol O'Connell is one of my favorite mystery thriller authors and even though this one is a stand alone and does not feature her police woman Mallory it is still an excellent book.
  
  I love the mystery, two brothers go into the wood, only one returns, only now 20 years later the bones of the brother that disappeared are starting to show up on the porch of his father's house.
  
  There are plot twists galore, the characters are so well developed that I started missing them after finishing the book.
  This is a terrific psychological thriller and a one that is definitely difficult to put down once you start reading it.
• 
  Carol Sandford

  Good read. Not brill but goof
• 
  Alison

  The opening and set up of this book was great but I never did connect with the main character, Oren, and just wasn’t as involved with the mystery as I would have liked to have been! 3.5⭐️’s
• 
  Sandra Dias

  Já tinha lido à uns anos atrás um outro livro desta autora - "O Oráculo de Mallory" - e já conhecia este estilo enganador e perspicaz de escrita que parece lento e com um desenvolvimento gradual mas que a páginas tantas nos vemos enredados na história de tal maneira que nos vemos confrontados com montes de dúvidas e perguntas que precisam de resposta. Este livro não é excepção, e além disso tem um ritmo mais rápido que o anterior que li.
  
  
  O que me seduziu neste livro foi a sensação sempre presente de que todas as personagens das principais às secundárias tinham algo a esconder, um segredo do passado cuja revelação poderia destruí-los. A falsa ingenuidade, calma e sensatez de algumas personagens enganou-me bem e vi-me a mudar de suspeito mais para o final do livro.
  Cada personagem tem uma profundidade e um carácter de tal maneira real que me esqueci de que estava a ler um livro e dava por mim a devorar as páginas como se de um filme se tratasse. Sem dúvida que na criação de ambientes e personagens esta autora é mestre.
  
  
  Tudo começa quando a ovelha negra da cidade volta. Oren Hobbs não é visto à mais de 20 anos e não se pode dizer que seja bem-vindo, bem pelo contrário.
  A vinda de Oren remexe em feridas antigas e segredos bem guardados, levantando um pó que ninguém quer limpar ou sequer ver que existe.
  Desde o primeiro dia que há alguém que é extremamente simpático com Oren, alguém que foge dele literalmente, alguém que se recusa a apenas olhar para ele, alguém que o ama e protege, alguém que tenta, de forma descarada, matá-lo. E isto apenas nos primeiros capítulos. Adiciona-se a isto uns ossos humanos que continuam teimosamente a aparecer à porta do pai de Oren e do desaparecido Josh Hobbs e temos um livro que nos agarra e não nos larga.
  
  
  Desvendar um pouco que seja seria destruir o prazer de futuros leitores, uma vez que grande parte do prazer que se retira deste livro é com os chamados "elementos surpresa". Assim deixo apenas a certeza de que é um livro muito, muito bem escrito e que me deu muitas horas de prazer puro.
  Recomenda-se.
  
• 
  Patricia

  Bone by Bone is a book that will bring the reader an intriguing mystery, a lot of suspense and wonderful, eccentric characters that actually seem to come alive in the pages of the book. The author makes you want to walk the streets of the town and see each character for yourself.
  
  Years ago, Oren Hobbs and his little brother Josh ventured into the woods. Oren returned but Josh was never found. Now Oren has returned to his hometown of Coventry. Letters from Hannah Rice, the housekeeper who raised him, has made him fear that his father might be ill and needing him.
  
  Oren finds out that Hannah has not been totally open with him in her letters. His father’s health is not the problem. The problem is that something is going on that brings the events of the past hurtling to the present. Josh’s bones are being returned a little bit at a time.
  
  Oren has spent his years away from home as a CID Agent in the Army and his investigative skills will be put to good use in Coventry. But Coventry is used to keeping secrets and that hasn’t changed in the years Oren has been gone.
  
  Hannah Rice is a little woman with a mysterious past but Hannah seems to know everything about everyone in the town and she does share with Oren but just a little at a time.
  
  Many of the town’s secrets are uncovered before the truth is actually revealed about what happened to Josh Hobbs. It is quite a shock when the entire story is revealed and I certainly didn’t even suspect the true story until it was revealed.