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The French police call on the Skeleton Detective when a dog digs up some human bones: "Terrific" --Publishers Weekly Les‑Eyzies‑de‑Tayac is known for three things: pâté de fois gras, truffles, and prehistoric remains. The little village, in fact, is the headquarters of the prestigious Institute de Préhistoire, which studies the abundant local fossils. But when a pet dog emerges from a nearby cave carrying parts of a human skeleton--by no means a fossilized one--Chief Inspector Lucien Anatole Joly puts in a call to his old friend, Gideon Oliver, the famed "Skeleton Detective." Once Gideon arrives, murder piles on murder, puzzle on puzzle, and twist follows twist in a series of unexpected events that threaten to tear the once sober, dignified Institut apart. It takes a bizarre and startling forensic breakthrough by Gideon to bring to an end a trail of deception thirty‑five thousand years in the making. Skeleton Dance is the 10th book in the Gideon Oliver Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order. … (more)
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"Once Gideon arrives, murder piles on murder, puzzle on puzzle, and electrifying surprise on surprise, in a series of unexpected events that threaten to tear the once sober, dignified institute apart. It takes a bizarre and startling forensic breakthrough by Gideon to bring an end to a trail of deception almost forty thousand years in the making."
~~front flap
This is a wonderful mystery, set in the Dordogne, a regular mecca for archaeologists and anthropologists -- full of cave paintings and Middle Pleistocene habitation sites in rock shelters. It's reported to be a beautiful area, and of course the many caves with prehistoric rock art (Roc-aux-Sorciers, Lascaux, La Chaire à Calvin, Abri du Poisson, Cap Blanc, Rouffignac [Cave of the Hundred Mammoths], Font de Gaume, Pech Merle, etc.) and the numerous archaeological sites are a once in a lifetime experience. (Of course you can tell that I would give anything to be able to go there ...)
Gideon becomes embroiled in a more modern mystery, analyzing the bones of a recent murder by request of Inspector Joly. The plot continues to twist and thicken, of course, and the murderer is finally identified, and it's a lovely tour through the region's cafes and hotels and landscape for Gideon and Julie in the meanwhile. Well worth reading if you're a mystery fan.
Apparently I have the hardcover and the ebook.
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