The Bone Garden: A Novel

This was such a great read. Different from the other books I have read by Tess Gerritsen but a fabulous story

Wonderful book about a poor Irish Seamstress named Rose Connelly who is raising her niece Margaret after her sister Aurnia dies shortly after giving birth from what they called childbed fever. Shortly before she died Aurnia confessed that her baby was fathered by a prominent local Dr, and not her husband. Rose had taken the baby out of the room and did not hear her confession but within days the doctor and the two nurses who were there to hear what she said were attacked and stabbed to death by a mysterious figure wearing a mask and a cape that the press and local gossips have named The West End Reaper. The policeman that is second in command is quick to place the blame on an innocent medical student but he can't arrest him until an anonymous letter directs the police to search his room and they find a mask and a body part carved from the latest victim. So Mr. Norris, the medical student and Rose Connelly have to prove his innocence and find out who the real West End Reaper while keeping baby Meggie safe with the help of Norris' medical school.classmate Oliver Wendell Holmes. Wonderful book that I recommend to everyone.

Julia Hamill bought a house contrary to advice, solicited and unsolicited, of others. All she wanted to do was plant a garden. This required some digging, heavy work she was not accustomed to. And now she had found a body. True, the realtor selling her the house had warned her of rumors that she might hear about the history of the house. A ninety-year-old woman, the previous owner, had died in the house and her body hadn’t been discovered for several weeks. Surely this was not her body. So who was buried here?Mystery one was quickly solved. The body came complete with a ring that dated the body to around 1840. Still, who was it? Chapter two takes us back to 1830 and the book continues organizationally in this fashion. Chapters alternate in time telling a story in the past and in the present. The story in the past presents us with a mystery to solve. Who is the West End Reaper? People are being killed seemingly systematically. The story plays out in a medical environment that involves doctors struggling with new ideas, students struggling to be doctors, and grave robbers struggling to supply bodies for study by the medical community.The story of grave robbers both as individuals and as an occupation is fascinating and gruesome. The reader might agree with a basic tenet that bodies are needed for anatomical study. It should be easy to see the questions that will occur. Where do you get the bodies? Obviously from the graves, but what happens when supply is scarce and demand is high? How about from the poor and homeless population? Nobody would really miss them, it would be a kindness to relieve them of an existence of suffering, and medical research would advance. There is the nasty problem of a criminal act, not to mention that such killing would be at least immoral.Dr. Crouch is a mentor doctor in charge of four central character medical students, one a notable historical figure, Oliver Wendell Holmes. More important than Holmes is student Norris Marshall, a romantic interest for Rose as well as a necessary helper. Rose, Aurnia, and Margaret are the center pieces of conflict in the novel. Aurnia is disposed of easily, she dies in childbirth in the first few pages. Rose is a definition of abject poverty. She can’t rely on brother-in-law Eben. Prior to Aurnia’s death Rose had worked as a seamstress at Eben’s tailor shop, but after Rose discovered the avarice and sense of ownership of all things that had belonged to Aurnia on the part of Eben, she knew continuing employment with him was no longer a possibility.Any guesses as to where Aurnia’s body will end up? Rose wants to care for her sister Aurnia’s newborn, saving the baby from a life in a government home. Rose has no faith in systems, government or medical. The doctors had not listened to her when she told them to stop bleeding Aurnia and Aurnia had died. She was not going to let the baby die from governmental neglect. The problem was Eben, Aurnia’s husband. He saw the baby as the property of Aurnia along with everything else Aurnia had prior to her death, such as a necklace she had given Rose. Eben wanted the baby but wanted the necklace more. Why?In the present, the identity of the skeleton Julia found was not difficult. Hilda had died and left behind several boxes, close to a hundred, of documents, pictures, and news clippings. The stories in this novel will be related as the elements are discovered. There are also accounts of the daily lives that people of different classes lived during the 1800s. This novel explores the horrible poverty, filthy hygiene (out of economic necessity), resistance to new medical ideas (bleeding, really), and crime developed around a grave robbing industry of the 1800s. And there is almost a romance. There are also some really startling surprises that make the book well worth reading.And finally, there is a tie-in to present day medicine. This is not a spoiler, so if you want to follow this up even prior to beginning reading, feel free. This novel has a great, and factually true, great last line. Going to it first will not affect your enjoyment of the book.

For me, this one took Too Many twists and turns. And so MANY characters. Decent historical fiction, but I won't be reading anymore by this author.

I enjoyed reading Tess Gerritsen’s novel, “The Bone Garden,” because she is so adept at conveying sensations to the reader. I constantly search for writers who allow me to feel the atmosphere they are portraying ; my foraging usually ends up fruitless. She actually brought to my senses the smell of poverty, the scratch of a filthy straw bed, the odor emanating from rotten teeth, the sting of a vermin’s bite, the numbing cold and wet of New England weather, the sight, heft, and stink of human innards. I love all that. It’s what I look forward to when first opening a new book.“The Bone Garden” tells us about two periods in time. Boston, in 1830, was a hardscrabble mixture of poverty and high society. Humanity came packed together in great contrasts of living in destitution and enjoying oysters and champagne. A perfect example was in the practice of medicine, the story’s theme. Once the training and difficult internship was over, doctors became pillars of society; rich, famous, and respected. If they had the resources to endure their uncomfortable existence at the beginning, and they had the stomach to endure the ghastly exploration of the human body while training, they were rewarded with a mostly pleasant and affluent life thereafter. Gerritsen, as a real life doctor, describes this world with great knowledge and depth of feeling.The second period of the book brings us to modern rural Boston where Julia Hamill discovers a skull in her backyard that displays both great age and signs of a violent death. She is intrigued and determined to uncover the mysteries of its past. Through clever writing, the author takes the reader back and forth through both periods of time as she reveals the secrets behind the skull. Many characters are encountered over the time you’ll spend reading but not one is out of place. I’ll not tell you more, but encourage you read the book for the intriguing details. Not to worry. Gerritsen’s back flashes mingling with the present are not a distraction.Gerritsen has been described as the “ medical suspense queen.” A mixture of suspense, romance, and medical mystery, her novels have won many awards, been consistent best sellers, and productive enough to allow her to abandon her medical career for full-time writing. Obviously, because she fulfills my tactile necessities, I need to read more of her books. And, I will.Schuyler T WallaceAuthor of TIN LIZARD TALES

a capa chegou amassada nas pontas

Excellent work. Like the concept of story running para rally between 1830 and present time...character of Noris Marshal is beautifully crafted....

現代と１８３０年代の２時代を行ききしつつ物語が進展して面白く読ませて頂いた。主人公に子供が出来なかったので安っぽくならずに済んだ。あえて苦言を言わせてもらうと、もっと現代を省略してその分のエネルギーを過去パートに費やしてもよかったのではないだろうか。１８３０年代の事件の落ちが私には強引に思えたから。あの動機だけで犯人がこれほどの事件を起こせるだろうか？犯人にその「技術」が本当にあっただろうか？などなどの疑問が残る。複線の絡み方をもっと増やしてそこを補って欲しかった。しかし、私のように Jane & Maura に少し飽きてきた読者にとっては休息になるのではないだろうか。例によって英文は分かりやすい。

Very interesting book

1830年代のボストンと現代のボストンが舞台です。現代のボストンで離婚後に一軒家を購入した女性が庭を掘り返すと、一体の骸骨が現れる。どうにも骸骨の正体が気になる主人公。するとその家に住んでいた女性の子孫である老人から、古い新聞や手紙がまだ残されているという連絡が来る。魅かれるままに老人と調べ始める主人公。過去の手紙から、1830年代のボストンで起こったある一人の赤ちゃんをめぐって引き起こされた猟奇殺人の全容が明らかになっていく。Tess Gerritsen の作品を全て読破したわけではないのでおこがましいですが、私は今の所、この作品が一番好きです。相変わらず、人間がある目的のためにどれだけ残酷になれるのか、ということを素晴らしい描写力で表現していますが、同時に人を愛すこと、忠誠を誓うことの尊さもまた描かれています。怖いのと同時に、切ないお話でもありました。おススメです！