In New York City, women are falling victim to a serial killer. A housewife is snatched in broad daylight. A jewelry-pierced drifter winds up under a boardwalk. A multi-millionaire high-society heiress ends up in the city dump, and more victims follow.
The victims seem to have no connection; what could a housewife, a drifter, and an heiress have in common? Lieutenant John W. Driscoll, the lead investigator of the murders, intends to find out. So far, the victims seem to have only one thing in common: the serial killer who slays them removes their bones from their bodies and to keep as personal trophies. New Yorkers are in a panic, and Driscoll and his team are under extreme pressure to apprehend the killer.
The serial killer’s name is Colm Pierce, and he is introduced to the reader in the prologue of the book. Having endured a horrifying childhood, Colm has morphed into a vicious psychopath with a bizarre liking for bones. Colm has devised a clever method to lure his victims, and there is no shortage of potential victims. Colm’s looks, financial status and career cleverly hide the evil inside.
The chapters in Bone Thief go back and forth between Lieutenant Driscoll’s investigation and what Colm is doing at the moment, which is usually torturing a victim, giving the reader a close look at both the police investigation and the killer’s mind. The flow of the novel is comfortable and the chapters are kept short. Incorporated into the story are details of a tragedy in Driscoll’s family as well some personal feelings that he shares with a work partner. There also is a teenaged computer whiz who gets herself involved in the investigation and leads Driscoll on the right path. The novel becomes very suspenseful toward the end, leaving the reader turning pages and eager to learn the resolution of the story.
Bone Thief is an enjoyable, promising debut, but it could have used some additional editing (mainly typos), and some of the one-liners in the book fall flat (“But Driscoll was on him like a slaughterhouse worker finishing off a calf.”). Some loose ends either should have been tied up at the end or simply left out. Still, this is a fast-paced and entertaining novel that becomes more better reading a few chapters in.