Murder in the Queen's Armes (The Gideon Oliver Mysteries) - Softcover

Elkins, Aaron

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1497643139 ISBN 13: 9781497643130

Publisher: Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller, 2014

Synopsis

The Skeleton Detective puzzles over the theft of an ancient bit of bone—and a student’s murder—in this novel by the Edgar Award–winning author of Switcheroo.

Anthropology professor Gideon Oliver would prefer to keep his mind on his beautiful new bride Julie during their English honeymoon, but one intrusive question will not stop nagging at him: Who would want to steal a thirty-thousand-year-old parieto-occipital calvarial fragment?

Yet someone has lifted this chunk of prehistoric human skull from a musty museum in Dorchester. Then, thirty miles away, an archaeology student is murdered, increasing tension and suspicion at a dig that had already seethed with suspicion, rivalry, and mistrust. Could there be a connection between a hot bone and a cold-blooded murder? Gideon is called on by the police to apply the unique skills for which the media have named him “the Skeleton Detective,” and he reluctantly agrees. Before he is done, his sleuthing will lead him to another murder and will—in the most literal and terrifying manner imaginable—sic the dogs on him, putting Gideon himself, and Julie as well, in mortal danger . . .

Murder in the Queen’s Armes is a suspenseful, fun-filled whodunit by the author of the Alix London and Chris Norgren series—a celebrated master who “thoroughly understands the art of the murder mystery” (The Philadelphia Inquirer).

Murder in the Queen’s Armes is the 3rd book in the Gideon Oliver Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
 

About this title

About the Author:

Aaron Elkins is a former anthropologist and professor who has been writing mysteries and thrillers since 1982. His major continuing series features forensic anthropologist-detective Gideon Oliver, “the Skeleton Detective.” There are fifteen published titles to date in the series. The Gideon Oliver books have been (roughly) translated into a major ABC-TV series and have been selections of the Book-of-the-Month Club, the Literary Guild, and the Readers Digest Condensed Mystery Series. His work has been published in a dozen languages.
 Mr. Elkins won the 1988 Edgar Award for best mystery of the year for Old Bones, the fourth book in the Gideon Oliver Series. He and his cowriter and wife, Charlotte, also won an Agatha Award, and he has also won a Nero Wolfe Award. Mr. Elkins lives on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula with Charlotte.

From Publishers Weekly:

Anthropologist Gideon Oliver is honeymooning in England when he decides to drop in on a Dorset dig run by his old friend Nate Marcus. The local scientific society is miffed by Marcus's publicity-grabbing theories, and definitely put off by his abrasive manner. Gideon detects an uneasy atmosphere at the dig. After a member vanishes and an unidentifiable body turns up, Gideon ("the skeleton detective" of Fellowship of Fear and The Dark Place) is dragged into the investigation by the police. He's also unwillingly involved with Marcus's great "find"that turns out to be a fake. Blackmail, academic hugger-mugger and more murder surface and Gideon and his wife are in dire peril. The characters and local color are only moderately interesting and the ending is rather tame, but the book is saved by Gideon's enthusiasm and Elkins's depiction of his neat "skeletal detective work." Foreign rights: Barney Karpfinger Agency. December 16
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1497643139
• ISBN 13: 9781497643130
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200