Old Bones by Aaron Elkins -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Old Bones by Aaron Elkins

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

I'm at sea. I mean that literally, in that I'm on a cruise with my mom and sister. I pre-scheduled this post, so I hope it works. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

So still and silent was the fog-wreathed form that it might have been an angular, black boulder.

-- from Old Bones by Aaron Elkins.

Old Bones is the fourth of 18 books in Aaron Elkins's Gideon Oliver mystery series. I haven't read the first three and, normally, I don't read a series out of order. But I am trying to be less regimented about that and just jump right in. Old Bones is the only Elkins book I have on my TBR shelf. It won the Edgar Award for best mystery in 1988. Because I had it and am trying to read all the Edgar winners, I took the bold (for me) move of reading it first. Wish me luck!  

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from Old Bones:

They sat in silence as the Breton coast's wide sky and low dunes gave way to the rolling hills of the Rance estuary, and then to the somber heaths and dark little forests of the interior. At an intersection with a narrow graveled road a primitive wooden sign with the word "Ploujean” pointed left.

I love mystery books set in European countries, France especially.  

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

“With the roar of thunder and the speed of a galloping horse comes the tide to Mont St. Michel,” goes the old nursery song. So when the aged patriarch of the du Rocher family falls victim to the perilous tide, even the old man’s family accepts the verdict of accidental drowning.

But too quickly, this “accident” is followed by a bizarre discovery in the ancient du Rocher chateau: a human skeleton, wrapped in butcher paper, beneath the old stone flooring. Professor Gideon Oliver, lecturing on forensic anthropology at nearby St. Malo, is asked to examine the bones. He quickly demonstrates why he is known as the “Skeleton Detective,” providing the police with forensic details that lead them to conclude that these are the remains of a Nazi officer believed to have been murdered in the area during the Occupation. Or are they? Gideon himself has his doubts.