Book Review: The Bones in the Attic

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Bones in the Attic     Amazon US HC Amazon UK PB Amazon Canada HC
Robert Barnard
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Scribner, April 2002, $23.00, 272 pp.

Matt Harper is a minor celebrity in England because of his past professional soccer playing and his present day work as a media sports commentator. While his significant other is in South Africa taking care of her ailing husband, Matt is nurturing and watching over her three children. In fact, the four of them plan to move into Elderholm and decorate much of it before Aileen returns.

Before Matt sets a moving date, he and the decorator make a grisly discovery in the attic. They find the whole skeletal remains of a very young child lying in the corner of the room as if somebody put it there and forgot about it. Matt calls in the police but since the crime happened in 1969 it is not a high priority case. Since Matt knew most of the children in the area during that summer he begins investigating and discovers a conspiracy of gigantic proportions.

The protagonists of THE BONES IN THE ATTIC is a good sensitive man eagerly taking care of three children not his own while their mother is away taking care of their father. Readers will get caught up in Matt’s investigation of why the child died and was left up in the attic and hope he gets some answers quickly. The investigation is believable and the answers will more than satisfy the audience.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner