Lending credence to the plotline in The Bone Chamber, Burcell's main character, Special Agent Sydney Fitzpatrick, is skeptical to say the least; a majority of the characters are – even a professor of such conspiracies that Sydney interviews as a lead in one of the many murders tied to the case.  However, what Sydney—who used her abilities as a sketch artist to purge her demons in the first novel of the series, Face of a Killer - discovers after she has insinuated herself into the investigation may force her to look much deeper beneath the surface than she expected, and the case leads all of the investigators to conclusions that lost legitimacy centuries ago.

After tracing down her father's murderer, Sydney took a job teaching at Quantico in the hopes of getting her balance back and re-settling into her niche.  Until that case, she had always been a straight flier, never a rule-breaker. When supposed Special Agent Zach Griffin interrupts her class to all but lock her up to draw a sketch from a skull, Syd's incapable of keeping her nose out of it.  Her attempt at an investigation leads her to a murdered diplomatic daughter and the discovery that her friend has been killed in a hit-and-run.  What Sydney needs to find out now is what the two had to do with one another.

After being shot at a few times and calling her old partner, Tony Carillo, to do some groundwork, Sydney follows Zach Griffin to Rome, where all of the conspiracy intrigue begins in earnest.  Syd's involved in a bit of a conspiracy of her own: some of Zach's fellow agents have brought her into the fold, and now she knows she's running black ops, something she could end up in prison for if she even survives it. ATLAS, the secret organization, is looking into a philanthropist named Adami whom they are certain is searching for a biological agent of biblical proportions —literally.  The further Sydney and Zach follow the murders into the Freemason conspiracies, the more they wonder if those conspiracies and their supposed ties to the Templar Knights and the Ark of the Covenant aren't just the thing Adami is currently chasing in the hopes of taking out all of his enemies plus a helluva lot more.

Though The Bone Chamber strays entirely from Sydney's position at the FBI and the fact that she's one of the country's primary forensic artists, it will take mystery readers and conspiracy theorists alike on quite the ride. Not as in-depth as predecessors such as The DaVinci Code,The Bone Chamber will nonetheless require a great deal of thought not only to follow the complicated twists of the plot but to keep the substantial cast of characters fresh. Burcell's books are not police procedural by any means, and Sydney Fitzpatrick is not an atypical police heroine; she's more along the lines of something from Iris Johansen than she is out of Alex Kava despite the fact that Burcell was an agent at one point.

The development of Sydney Fitzpatrick as a character has grown significantly since the previous book, and in The Bone Chamber, it seems that the other characters are more fleshed-out as well.  The Bone Chamber, though probably not what one would expect when picking up a series mystery, is certain not to disappoint.  Readers will feel properly sated by the end but will regardless be ready for another installment.

--Sarrah Knight