Book Review: The Bone Yard

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Bone Yard     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Paul Johnston
Class/Genre:   Fantasy   Mystery   Futuristic
Series: Quintilain Dalrymple # 2
St. Martin's, Aug 2000, $23.95, 304 pp.

The independent city-state of Edinburgh trained a new group of guardians who run a much tighter ship. The locals dub them the "iron boy scouts" for their zeal to supervise everyone's activities. The city has some economic troubles caused by troubles in other parts of the world such as a nasty flu epidemic in Asia and the Russian Mafia tossing warheads into the Middle East.

On January 1, 2022, detective Quintilian Dalyrmple visits a potential client Roddie Aitken, but finds Roddie's sexually mutilated corpse with a cassette tape of Clapton playing the Blues inside the corpse. Other brutal murders follow with their own tapes. Quint and his partner investigate the killings, not yet realizing the peril they will soon face as they close in on THE BONE YARD.

The sequel to the award winning BODY POLITIC, THE BONE YARD is an entertaining futuristic science fiction tale. The story line centers on Quint and Davie's inquiries into the vicious killings in the midst of 2021 Edinburgh. The background is fully developed so that the city-state has a real feel to it with references to twentieth century music adding to the luster. The who-done-it will please readers of future mysteries, as the prime plot is clearly fun to follow. However, the charcaters, even Quint, seem flat as ice so that anyone who failed to read the first book never fully becomes attached to anyone. Still Paul Johnston provides a luscious landscape that brings his audience into a different society that makes for a pleasant visit solving a series of brutal homicides.

Harriet Klausner

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