Wallace is requesting a favor. A train derailment has stretched his staff to the limit, and he has no one to send to a crime scene in a remote location, the island of Runa in the Outer Hebrides. He is certain that Hunter’s forensic expertise will jump start the investigation into a mysterious fire death. Emotionally and physically drained from his outing on the Grampian Highlands, David begins to refuse but his intellectual curiosity as well as his devotion to his profession hold him back. He backpedals, saying that he will get back to him after he’s spoken with his girlfriend. He knows Jenny will be angry as indeed she is, but finds he cannot ignore Wallace’s plea for help.

After having endured a harrowing trip on a small plane and a seemingly less than seaworthy ferry, Hunter lands on Runa. He is led to a remote cottage that appears to be well on its way to falling down. Inside the cottage are what appear to be the remains of a body. Curiously the torso of the body had been completely reduced to ash, but the skull remained and the feet and one hand are scorched but intact. In addition the fire had been confined to the body itself. Nothing else in the room had burned.

Although the circumstances are unusual, Hunter doesn’t feel comfortable ruling the death a murder without further examination. The lighting in the cottage is marginal even with some portable floodlights. Hunter elects to secure the scene and return in the morning to look at things more closely. By then Wallace, hopefully, will have sent on his own investigative team.

But, and there is always a but, Mother Nature has decided to intervene as well. A violent storm begins to batter the island making transportation to or from the island impossible. In addition, the wind is so severe that the roof of the cottage in which the remains are located has been ripped completely off exposing them directly to Mother Nature’s wrath.

As in his previous novel, The Chemistry of Death Simon Beckett demonstrates his ability to render into common parlance the complex manner in which the elements of the human body decompose. The fact that the body has burned allows the author to explain some interesting phenomenon. And the author’s use of the storm to effectively create a locked room murder situation heightens the excitement by narrowing the number of possible perpetrators. (Subsequent deaths point to multiple murderer).

The title of the novel is an apt one as Beckett explains that the body leaves a record of many events of a life in the bones be it neglect, abuse or other types of injuries. Bones offer the forensic anthropologist clues to how a life was lived as well as indicating what may have caused death.

Island life in the modern world in the Outer Hebrides is an isolated one. Though communication is better than in the past, phone communication can still be suspended at a moment’s notice if a violent storm occurs. Also, it has a small town atmosphere in which most inhabitants know each other and probably know more about each other than is good for them. The author uses this information to his advantage in the creation of a curious death. His power of description of the isolation of the island and the fury of the weather is memorable.

Although the story is a totally believable one, the author leaves far too few clues to allow his readers to try and puzzle out the mystery. His explanation makes perfect sense but he requires the last fifty or so pages to elucidate the situation. Indeed, without spoiling the end, the beginning doesn’t quite ring true if it is reread knowing the outcome.

Nonetheless, Written in Bone is an entertaining educational read that will make readers applaud the work of forensic scientists.

--Andy Plonka