Only after I’ve finished this hefty crime thriller did I find out it belongs to a series written by Faye Kellerman. In fact, Bone Box the 24th installment of the series. Fail. But, my mother was kind enough to pick it up for me, and not many parts of the book ended up being confusing, which was a relief. With that being said, let’s get into it!
Peter Decker is a “retired” former LAPD lieutenant detective, who now works in upstate New York as a detective. One morning, his wife, Rina stumbles across some bones on a wooded trail near a group of colleges where she works. Not long after, two more bodies are found, and Decker, along with his law school partner, Tyler McAdams, are convinced it’s the work of a serial killer. Now it’s just all about piecing everything together. The first murder happened seven years prior when a girl named Yvette Jones went missing, then an intelligent and outspoken transgender student, Lawrence Pettigrew, goes missing, and finally, the most recent body belongs to student Delilah Occum.
Aside from all being students at the colleges, it’s hard to determine what ties them all together. With some hard work and assistance from old colleagues and even Rina, they are able to pinpoint some shady professors and significant others that they all have in common. Everything comes to a head all at once, and there seems to be no fewer than six people involved in all of these crimes, but the real help comes from Erin Young, a young woman who managed to escape her grave and start a new life. It also really helped that the latest victim, Dana, managed to survive a horrific planned car accident.
With all of these players in motion, this mystery became really exciting to read about! I found myself flying through this 400-page saga a lot quicker than I initially thought I would. Also, the fact that I didn’t start to suspect that this was part of a larger series until about halfway through was testament to Kellerman’s writing. At that point though, there were mentions of several characters that were brief, but it was clear their involvement in Decker’s life was more significant. That led me to discover the long list of other novels that exist in this world.
Despite there being some real juicy reveals, this book ends on a cliffhanger so big that my jaw dropped. Surely, this gets picked up in another novel, right? Wrong! As far as I can tell, the next three novels featuring Peter Decker have absolutely nothing to do with the events of Bone Box, so I’m apparently just supposed to make the rest of it up for myself. I was extremely confused and disappointed by that turn of events, and honestly, it cost Kellerman another reader. If the rest of her novels in this series end in a similar way, why would I want to be disappointed 26 more times?! For that reason alone, do not read this. And if you’d like to know some of the juicy reveals I talked about feel free to ask in the comments!