Melville House
368 Pages
When I picked up Disturbing the Bones by Andrew Davis and Jeff Biggers at the Lockport Library, I immediately thought of the Body Farm series by Jefferson Bass. Even the cover looked like one from that book series. I loved those books, so I was very happy to pick this one up and bring it home with me, with the hopes that I would enjoy it as much as that previous series. While the subject matter was not the same as the Body Farm series, it was a very enjoyable book.
Dr. Molly Moore is working an archeological dig in Cairo, Illinois that is 12,000 years old and could alter our perception of early civilizations in North America. The dig is a part of a highway construction project, a highway that will significantly help a local military installation. The project is behind because of the impact of the dig, which puts the dig in jeopardy despite its importance. At the same time, a decades old civil rights murder and an unpopular president’s global peace plan all seem to converge on events in Cairo.
Chicago detective, Randall Jenkins, is friends with the current President of the United States, and has deep ties to the Cairo community. His mother disappeared decades earlier in an apparent hate crime by white supremacists. Bones found by Dr. Moore in her dig appear to match that of Jenkins’ mother. This revelation sets things into motion that could lead to the downfall of the American government.
When I first started reading this, I couldn’t figure out how the national and international events could be tied back to this small town murder. However, as the pieces started to fall into place, the intricacy of the plot were delightfully exposed. It’s an energetic race against the clock as nefarious members of a cabal attempt to undermine the president, the peace accords, and the civil rights of a wrongfully murdered woman at the expense of her son’s reputation.
The book does get confusing at the very beginning when something major happens in Russia. I sat there for several minutes wondering how we jumped halfway around the globe and how it tied into the rest of the story. However, as more details unfolded in Illinois, the ties became clearer and clearer. The political intrigue was on a larger scale than expected, but fit nicely into the storyline that Davis and Biggers developed. It was almost like the Butterfly Effect with events all around the world affecting simple people in the Midwest, and vice versa.
Disturbing the Bones by Andrew Davis and Jeff Biggers will lead you on an adventure that takes in civil rights, world domination, modern politics, and archaeology, all rolled into one. After a bit of an awkward transition near the beginning of the book, this novel soars through to the last pages. This multi-layered narrative will keep you on your toes as you read. I cannot wait for more novels from this duo.
Craig Bacon loves to read great adventures and harrowing tales of espionage and intrigue.