Ruth’s next-door-neighbor Fay Hubbard is opening a bed-and-breakfast in the house she rents from a distant cousin. Her first visitors are non-paying guests of the house’s original owner, Glenna Flint (also a distant cousin), who is on the lam from her son who is trying to put her in a home and Glenna’s great niece, Hartley. Her first paying guest is Kevin Crowingchief who has come to get his wife who has started the Healing House, a haven for abused women. Kevin fears this haven may have turned into a cult and have an unnatural hold over Angie. Eccentric old-timer Alwyn Bagshaw, whose property abuts the Center’s property is also not pleased with the women.

When the rest of the skeleton is found in Fay’s backyard, Glenna announces that it is her ex-husband Mac, who disappeared twenty years ago. The medical examiner determines the skeleton cannot be Mac’s and Colm, a part-time policeman, part-time mortician and realtor, sets of to New York City to locate Mac. While he’s there, Glenna and Hartley hide out, but Glenna disappears while her niece goes for provisions.

While Colm and Ruth try to establish who the skeleton belongs to, Ruth’s young son begins to find poisoned birds in the backyard and the women in the Healing House are beginning to show signs of being poisoned. When Angie dies, Ruth begins snooping around. She never suspects that all these mysteries are connected,, yet as each piece is revealed and comes into focus, relationships that Ruth never imagined begin to emerge.

I expected Harvest of Bones to be a quick, one night read with a lively cast of characters, but was surprised at each complicated turn the plot took and how everything fit together at the end, with no one person having all of the answers. The appealing characters and small town atmosphere, combined with a complex plot make this a definite must read.

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry