Walking the Bones

by Randall Silvis
Sourcebooks 1/23/2018
Genre: Mystery/suspense
Pages: 464
Goodreads

***

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Ryan DeMarco in Two Days Gone last year. So I jumped on the opportunity to read book 2 in the series: Walking The Bones.
The book opens in a Kentucky forest. Pennsylvania State Police Sergeant Ryan DeMarco, 49, is climbing a mountain. Shortly after realizing his cell phone battery is dead, someone shoots at him. He falls and loses consciousness.
Only later on in the book will the reader understand what Ryan was doing in this forest, why, and what happened. I liked that structure, that way of telling you the story starting somewhat at both ends.

The story has several layers. I think it actually helps, or at least definitely makes the reading experience richer, to know what happened to Ryan in book one of the series, Two Days Gone.

As this is only the second book in the series, I highly encourage you to read both books, they are both so well written, why not double the treat!

All along Walking The Bones, we perceive the dramatic effects on the sergeant of his own childhood, of the losses of his young son and of his good friend Thomas Huston. The effects on his professional life and on his difficulty in creating lasting relationships, as he has to deal with grief, guilt, and anger. 

Now, as he stepped deliberately through the green landscape, he was thinking several thoughts concurrently, some fleeting, based on moment-to-moment observations, and some lingering, recognized by his consciousness and then left to stand like a pedestrian waiting for a break in the traffic.
chapter 7

In chapter 7, we meet three intriguing characters. It takes a while to figure out what camp they are in, which adds nicely to the intrigue. 

Anyway, without revealing too much, let’s just say Ryan is led to investigate on a gruesome murder that was never solved: the discovery of seven young female skeletons behind a false wall in a church. 

I really liked:

• the multi-layered story which added depth and also slowed down the plot, making it even more of a page-turner

• the numerous possible guilty parties (though at 17% of the book, I had guessed not who did it, but where to find the culprit)

• a bunch of colorful characters

• and the setting, a small Kentucky community and Daniel Boone National Forest, where I have done some hiking myself.

Beside Ryan’s complex character, I enjoyed discovering Jayme’s, with her own suffering, how both are dealing with their own wounded psyche and the one of the other, and how they work together. 

Nobody ever gets to be pure except through love.
chapter 101

There are a few great suspense scenes as well.

VERDICT:  Suspenseful multi-layered thriller, enriched by the depth of the characters and their personal stories. Randall Silvis is becoming one of my favorite latest discovery.

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In full compliance with FTC Guidelines,
I received this ebook free of charge from the publisher through Netgalley.
I was in no way compensated for this post as a reviewer, and the thoughts are my own.Save