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    Inherit the Bones: A Detective Gemma Monroe Mystery
    Inherit the Bones: A Detective Gemma Monroe Mystery
    Inherit the Bones: A Detective Gemma Monroe Mystery
    Audiobook11 hours

    Inherit the Bones: A Detective Gemma Monroe Mystery

    Written by Emily Littlejohn

    Narrated by Harper Landry

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Secrets and lies can’t stay buried forever in Cedar Valley.

    In the summer, hikers and campers pack the small Colorado town’s meadows and fields. And in the winter, skiers and snowboarders take over the mountains. Season by season, year after year, time passes and the lies, like the aspens and evergreens that surround the town, take root and spread deep.

    Now, someone has uncovered the lies, and it is his murder that continues a chain of events that began almost forty years ago. Detective Gemma Monroe’s investigation takes her from the seedy grounds of a traveling circus to the powerful homes of those who would control Cedar Valley’s future.

    Six-months pregnant, with a partner she can’t trust and colleagues who know more than they’re saying, Gemma tracks a killer who will stop at nothing to keep those secrets buried.

    Beautifully written with a riveting plot and a richly drawn cast of characters, Inherit the Bones is a mesmerizing debut from Emily Littlejohn.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherVibrance Press
    Release dateApr 26, 2019
    ISBN9781624616587
    Inherit the Bones: A Detective Gemma Monroe Mystery
    Author

    Emily Littlejohn

    EMILY LITTLEJOHN was born and raised in southern California. A former librarian, she now spends her time writing, raising a family, and working in city government in the Denver metro area. Inherit the Bones was her acclaimed debut novel, followed by A Season to Lie, and Lost Lake.

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    Reviews for Inherit the Bones

    4/5

    63 ratings8 reviews

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    • 5/5
      A great mystery thriller with a surprise ending. Will be reading Books 2 and 3 in this series.
    • 5/5
      Read all of the Gemma Monroe mysteries. Really well done and the audio was top notch
    • 4/5
      Well written and gripping, intricate plot, believable characters, as well as being brilliantly read.
    • 4/5
      This is a debut novel that doesn't read like one. Emily Littlejohn has a beautiful, lyrical writing style that captivated me from beginning to end. She's also created a nuanced main character that I definitely want to read more about. Gemma Monroe's parents were killed in a car wreck, and she was raised by her grandmother who is now in the grip of dementia. Gemma is pregnant, and her partner is off in the wilds of Alaska on a geological survey. Their relationship is complicated; Brody is a man Gemma loves deeply, and she trusts him with her life-- she just doesn't trust him with her heart. So she's got all sorts of personal troubles compounded by being forced to work with a fellow officer whose ethics have been questionable on more than one occasion.Inherit the Bones has a fascinating premise that kept its hooks in me throughout the book, but it's one you can't really talk about for fear of giving things away. Whodunit was easily deduced by me this time around, but with the character of Gemma, the storyline, and the way Emily Littlejohn writes, I didn't care. I'm looking forward to more.
    • 4/5
      Gemma Monroe is a police detective in a small town nestled in the mountains of Colorado. Early in her career, while skiing, Gemma found the long-buried bodies of two young boys who disappeared in the mid-1980s. The boys were murdered; their killer never found; and their disappearance and the subsequent crime has haunted the town. Now, in the present day, Gemma is called upon to investigate the gruesome murder of a teenage circus worker who was part of a circus traveling through town. Soon though, Gemma will come to realize that this murder is connected to the disappearance of the boys. She'll uncover a dark past that haunts her town--and discover that someone desperately wants her to leave the past alone.

      This was an excellent and well-plotted mystery novel. The story reels you in immediately and never lets you go with its strong, complex narrative. Gemma is a likeable, fairly deep, and interesting lead character. I took to her quickly and found myself wrapped up in her life. Gemma is six months pregnant - something you don't always find in detective novels, and you see her grappling with not only the case, but her personal life. Working in a small town, she finds quickly that she can't really trust anyone, and Littlejohn gives us good insight into her squad dynamics. She also captures small town living fairly well. This is a town wrapped up in its past, unable to move on from a web of secrets and lies that have tormented it for years.

      Indeed, the secrets continue to unfold, but in a completely believable manner, which I really appreciated. I guessed a part of the plot early on, but there were still so many pieces to the story that I was very much riveted until the very end. There's a strong supporting cast here as well, without the usual simple stock characters who sometimes support a rural detective. Goodreads is telling me that this is the first in a Gemma Monroe series, which I hope is true. While I think the series could hit a wall--as many others do--with the small town aspect (only so much murder and mayhem can happen in a small town: see Linda Castillo's excellent Kate Burkholder series, where you eventually start to fear for the poor townspeople of Painter's Mill), but I would certainly love to see more of Gemma.

      Overall, a well-done mystery. Originally rated at 3.5 stars, but pushing up to 4 as I write this review and realize how much I enjoyed it. Always nice to have a new face in the mystery world.

      I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Netgalley (thank you!) in return for an unbiased review; it is available everywhere as of 11/01/2016.
    • 4/5
      Inherit the Bones is Emily Littlejohn's debut novel - and the first book in the Detective Gemma Monroe novels. (I always enjoy getting in on the ground floor a new series!)Littlejohn opens up the book with a pretty topical crime - clowns. Well, only one clown - found viciously murdered when a travelling circus stops in town. But when the identity of that victim is discovered, old crimes, old cases and old fears are reignited. Two young brothers were abducted and killed years ago in Cedar Valley. Gemma was the one who found those bodies also - deep in the Colorado woods. The killer was never found - but lives on in infamy as The Woodsman.Gemma is such a great protagonist! Gemma has made her home in the small town of Cedar Valley, Colorado since she was a child and is now part of the police force. I was immediately drawn to her in the first few pages. She's intelligent, determined, no pushover - and six months pregnant. (I had a Fargo moment when I read this.)Littlejohn has set the stage for the next entries in this series - the settings and descriptions of time and place have given me a solid mental image of the town and surrounding area. Littlejohn makes her home in Colorado - and the details drawn from a personal view add much to the book The supporting cast of characters are well drawn and fleshed out. We get to know the rest of the police force. Finn is the partner forced on Gemma - I enjoyed their banter and struggle to build a functional working relationship. Littlejohn gives Gemma an interesting personal storyline as well. Her partner (and the baby's father) does not make an appearance until the final pages of the book, but we learn of their troubled relationship as the book progresses.Littlejohn's plotting is quite inventive. There are many suspects to choose from, but she kept me guessing until the last bit of the book. Well done! I really enjoy solving the crime along with the detectives, putting the pieces together as they work through the clues. There's some really great creepy suspense filled scenes as well.I'm looking forward to seeing what other cases Littlejohn comes up with for Gemma and the Cedar Springs force. And now that Gemma has a child, it will be interesting to see how she handles being a parent with being a detective.
    • 4/5
      The coincidences of life, scary clowns have been all over our news stations lately so I was surprised to find when I started reading this that the case begins with the death of a carnival clown. Only this is not just any clown, this is a young man who has been thought dead for the last three years.So enter Gemma, a young, very pregnant detective and she soon ties together this case with the death of two young boys from past years. Has dreams about it. Gemma, herself is an appealing character, feisty, committed, refuses to give up her theories, despite conflicting views. Finn, her partner for this case at least, was harder to like but he grew on me. A good start to a new series, first novel by this author I believe and it is an evenly paced, very well written police procedural. Looking forward to seeing how she develops Gemma's character and wonder how her relationship problems work out, will wait and see.ARC from Netgalley.
    • 5/5
      Goodreads review book that I thoroughly enjoyed. This is my first novel by this author and I hope to read more. The book held my interest from the beginning, I got involved with the characters and the ending was a total surprise. Would recommend to everyone who enjoys a good police procedure mystery.