From Publishers WeeklyForensic sleuth Gideon Oliver discovers that an alleged avalanche victim actually died of an ice pick wound to the skull. PW called this "well-intentioned but wordy. . . . The repetitive scientific analysis and an overwrought narrative dull the novel's potential for suspense." Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. Product Description"Gideon Oliver expects to be amicably bored when he takes on the role of “accompanying spouse” at a lodge in the magnificent wild country of Glacier Bay, Alaska, where his forest ranger wife Julie is attending a conference. But it turns out to be exactly his cup of tea. There is another group at the lodge: six scientists on a memorial journey to the site of a thirty-year-old glacial avalanche that killed three of their colleagues. Their leader is TV’s most popular science personality, the unctuous M. Audley Tremaine, who is the sole survivor of the fatal avalanche. But he doesn’t survive long, and is soon found hanged in his room. If that isn’t upsetting enough, shocked hikers discover human bones emerging from the foot of the glacier—are they the shattered remains of the three who died, finally seeing daylight after their two-mile. three-decade journey within the glacial flow? When the FBI seek expert help, everyone agrees how fortunate it is that Dr. Oliver, the famed Skeleton Detective, is on the scene. Everybody, that is, but the person who wants ancient history to stay that way—and who believes that murder is the surest way to keep the past buried."

ReviewA thundering adventure...to be savored. (Publishers Weekly) Product DescriptionThe Dark Place finds forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver on a trail that stretches from prehistoric times--to present danger.

From Publishers WeeklyBiological anthropologist Gideon Oliver, the Skeleton Detectivemost recently featured in the Edgar-winning Old Bones heads down to the Yucatan to the archeological dig of Tlaloc, where five years previously he had been witness to the theft, by the project leader, of a priceless Mayan codex. After the scandal, the Mexican government closed the dig for several years but is now allowing work to resume under the direction of Gideon's old friend and mentor, Abe Goldstein. When Gideon and his wife, Julie, arrive to study some old bones, some recent remains make their appearance. A freelance reporter who is writing a sensational series on the dig and the theft is shot. Then the codex and a body are found under a rock fall; the victim turns out to be the main suspect. Most of the members of the current expedition, amateurs working without pay, are now under suspicion. While Gideon renews his friendship with the testy inspector of the Yucatan police, copes with an ancient Mayan curse and exercises his artful detective powers, he comes close to being killed himself. Elkins provides another delightful, semiserious romp through science and an exotic police culture. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalReturning to the site of an archaeological dig at Tlaloc on the Yucutan Peninsula, physical anthropologist Gideon Oliver is confronted with mysterious events from the distant and not-so-distant past as well as the present. Closed five years earlier amid scandal when the then project director apparently absconded with a priceless Mayan codex, the dig had recently resumed only to disclose some unauthorized excavation and an ancient curse, the details of which are being methodically fulfilled in graphic detail. Oliver and his wife, Julie, join forces with the local police to uncover the truth about what happened five years ago and its connection with the current problem. A well-written effort, perfect for an evening's entertainment.- Judith A. Gifford, Salve Regina Coll. Lib., Newport, R.I.Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Amazon.com ReviewIn the flood tides off Mont St. Michel, revered Resistance-hero Guillaume du Rocher is drowned. Already assembled at the Rocher estate to deal with family business, members of the Rocher clan instead read his will. The next day a partial skeleton is found in the cellar and Gideon Oliver, a physical anthropologist, is called to examine the bones. They are those of a young man who died 50 years prior and Gideon believes the deceased was tied to the Resistance movement. When Gideon is threatened, and Claude, Rocher's principal heir, is poisoned, Gideon begins to unravel a web of espionage, family deceit and murder, whose dramatic resolution lies in the secret held by the old bones. This taut thriller won the 1988 Edgar Award for best mystery novel. From Publishers WeeklyWhen revered Resistance-hero Guillaume du Rocher drowns in a rushing flood tide off Mont St. Michel, members of the familysummoned by Guillaume on undisclosed urgent businessare already assembled at the domaine du Rocher, where, instead, they hear his will. The next day in the basement, a partial skeleton is uncovered, and Gideon Oliver, American physical anthropologist known as the "Skeleton Detective," is called from his lectures at an international forensics conference to examine the bones. Gideon confirms the remains, determines that they are those of a young man dead almost 50 years, suggesting a connection to local Resistance actions, including one in which Guillaume's brother Alain was executed after Claude Fougeray, a du Rocher cousin and now Guillaume's principal heir, collaborated with the enemy. While Gideon gleans more and more information from the skeleton, Claude is poisoned and Gideon himself is threatened. An intricate plotmore substantial than it promises initiallyis weighed down by a school of weak red herrings, by too much multisyllabic information about bone structure and by characters more caricatured than lifelike. Elkins (The Dark Place and Fellowship of Fear), is better on the muck and sand below the abbey where the action, especially a thrilling final scene, gallops along as fast and compelling as the tide itself. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In April 1945, The Nazis, reeling and near defeat, frantically work to hide the huge store of art treasures that Hitler has looted from Europe. Truck convoys loaded with the cultural wealth of the Western world pour in an unending stream into the compound of the vast Altaussee salt mine high in the Austrian Alps. But with the Allies closing in, the vaunted efficiency of the Nazis has broken down. At Altaussee, all is tumult and confusion. In the commotion a single truck, its driver, and its priceless load of masterpieces vanish into a mountain snowstorm.Half-a-century later, in a seedy Boston pawnshop, ex-curator Ben Revere makes a stunning discovery among the piles of junk: a Velazquez from the legendary Lost Truck. But with it come decades of secrets, rancor, and lies, and the few who know of the painting's existence have their lives snuffed out one by one by an unknown assassin. Revere must travel back to the grand cities of Europe to unravel the tangled history of the lost...