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BONE HARVEST
by Mary Logue
Ballantine Books, June 2004
256 pages
$23.95
ISBN: 034546222X


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

July 7, 1952. A family is preparing to eat dinner. The farm overlooks Lake Pepin and is between Fort St Antoine and Plum City. A German family keeps the farm and it is one of the best in the region. It is Baby Arlette's first birthday, and in addition to the pot roast dinner, there is be German chocolate cake for dessert. There are four other children, ranging in age from 10 to three. All the kids are scattered around the house, except for the 10-year-old who is helping his father with the milking. Bertha is considering calling them all in for dinner, when the first shot is fired. A few minutes later, none of the Schuler family is alive.

Present day, July 1. Deputy Sheriff Claire Watkins, her 11-year-old daughter Meg, and her lover Rich, who plans to propose to Claire that night, are on their way to the organic farmers' market. The local produce is starting to come in. Claire's cell phone rings. There has been a burglary at a local warehouse. She drives to her office and finds that large quantities of highly toxic herbicide and insecticide have been stolen.

The next morning, when Claire comes to work, she finds that the flowers in the beds in front of the sheriff's office have been killed. A tiny bone is found in the bed. Then a farmer's chickens are killed and a small bone is found in the feed bin containing the poisoned food. The perpetrator escalates . . . he poisons lemonade at the annual town 4th of July party in the park. Claire finally sees the crime photos from the Schuler murders and discovers that one finger was cut off each dead body. These are the bones that are being left at each crime scene.

The solution of the 1952 murders leads to the solution of the current problems in the county. Logue has given us a tale full of beautiful descriptions of small-town life in the Wisconsin bluffs region and interpersonal relations as a backdrop for a series of horrible crimes. BONE HARVEST is a book that is well worth your time.

Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, April 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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