Title: Carved in Bone
Author: Jefferson Bass
Grade: 90/100 and 2 Gold Stars
Characterization 13/20
Once again, I didn’t really have any strong feelings for the characters; mostly I managed a couple eye rolls. I also took a couple points for character growth – the main character “grew” a tiny bit, but mostly, this story is a mystery novel. The characters just aren’t as important
Pacing 17/20
The last forty pages or so I did lose sleep over. Well paced and you just wanted to KNOW how it ended.
World building 40/40
I loved the science in this book. Loved it. The scene is well set, the accents convincing…this is just how you do it.
Plot 20/20
I actually gave this a 20/20 plus two bonus points awarded for one well-executed twist and two removed for crappy withholding of information (I am counting that as a crappy twist). My least favorite thing in a mystery novel is when the detective is seen receiving relevant information but that is withheld from the reader for no reason but to either create suspense or, worse, prevent the reader from guessing what’s going to happen. If your mystery is that transparent, maybe you should rethink it instead of being lame to your audience. In fairness, this book fell into the first category, but still. It was unnecessary and jarring enough to throw me out of the story twice.
Two gold stars – I really liked this book, and I think I will probably buy some more in the series at some point, if only because the setting and the science were so interesting and a nice change from what I typically see.
