Written in Bone

von Simon Beckett

I took the skull from its evidence bag and gently set it on the stainless steel table. Tell me who you are. . . . With this silent plea, forensic expert Dr. David Hunter ignites a harrowing murder investigation on a windswept Scottish island, and a tale of menace, sexuality, and revenge unravelsalong with the chilling message that a killer hasDr. David Hunter should be in London with the woman he loves and a past he cant quite shake off. Instead, as a favor to a beleaguered cop, Hunter travels to a remote island in the Outer Hebrides to inspect a baffling set of remains. A forensic anthropologist, he has seen bodies destroyed by all forms of violence, but even he is surprised at what he finds: human remains burned beyond recognitionall within the confines of an otherwise undamaged, unoccupied cottage. Local police want to rule the death accidental. But Hunters examination of the victims charred skull tells him that this woman, no doubt a stranger to the close-knit island of Runa, was murdered by someone nearby.Within days, two more people are dead by fire. Hunters job is to coax the dead into telling their storiesbut now that hes beginning to hear them, he is staggered by the truth. Working with only the barest of clues, he peels back the layers of mysteries past and present, exposing the tangle of secrets at the heart of this strange communityfrom the deceptions of a wealthy couple to the bitterness of an ex-cop and the secrets of a lonely single motheras a tale of rage and perversion comes full circlethen explodes in a series of violent acts and shocking twists.