The Bone Chamber

Robin Burcell
HarperCollins (2009)
ISBN 9780061122293
Reviewed by Leslie Granier for Reader Views (9/09)

Sydney Fitzpatrick is a forensic artist for the FBI who is on her way to San Francisco for a long Thanksgiving holiday.  Or so she thinks.  Unexpectedly, she is recruited to perform a forensic sketch from skeletal remains alongside her friend Natasha Gilbert, a forensic anthropologist.  After Natasha is killed because of the case they are working together, Sydney takes it upon herself to investigate.  The clues she uncovers along the way seem unrelated, but she must figure out how they fit together before her life becomes endangered.

The author definitely lays out an intriguing mystery.  She includes the disappearance of renowned microbiologists as well as two people missing from a college campus who were researching a conspiracy theory involving the Freemasons and the Catholic Church.  One of the missing persons is the daughter of the Ambassador to the Pope.  Also included in the mystery are undercover agent Zachary Griffin and Carlo Adami, an American crime boss in Italy.  There are several other characters whose true motives are not easily recognizable which makes figuring out the story even more difficult.

While reading “The Bone Chamber,” I found similarities between it and Dan Brown’s “The DaVinci Code.”  Some of the story takes place in Vatican City and involves a supposed cover-up by the Catholic Church.  There is also a search for an artifact that will bring power to whoever finds it and there are several clues the seeker must uncover before he can locate it.  However, this story takes on a life of its own as Sydney’s character becomes more developed.  She must face the ghosts from her past while working with people she is not certain she can trust.  Added to that is a relationship with her boyfriend that she knows she must end, but he is not willing to let go.

“The Bone Chamber” will keep the reader enthralled as he tries to make sense of what is going on in this book.  Both men and women will find it entertaining.  Author Robin Burcell’s experience of over twenty years in law enforcement makes her work more believable because she has personal experience with the types of scenarios about which she writes.

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