Series: The Gideon Oliver Mysteries #6

I picked this up on a whim a few months ago when it was on sale and I’m glad that I can say that I don’t regret it. Gideon Oliver is a forensic anthropologist who sometimes gets called out on police cases but this time he just stumbles into a case while he’s accompanying his wife as the plus one/spouse on a training trip to a remote lodge in Alaska. Apparently he forgot to bring any books (silly man) and there are fewer trails around the place than he expected so he really lucks in when they discover some human remains on the glacier. And then a modern murder happens, naturally (he doesn’t have to examine those bones). Could they be related, he wonders?

Anyway, this is basically a cozy mystery with nice banter and a surprising lack of things that drive me up the wall. Gideon is completely in love with his wife to the point that it was almost too sugary, but mostly I found it cute. It was a nice break from amateur detectives with dysfunctional relationships, anyway. I have another one of these that I picked up on sale even though I hadn’t read the this one yet, so I guess I’ll be keeping an eye out for any additional sales.

Previous updates:

56 % (Cusinart joke)

7 % (I think I found the victim)

Oh what the heck, I'll reproduce the Cusinart joke here:

There was a way to use bone weights to find out whether a set of bones had come from the same person, but you needed the right bones, and Gideon didn’t have them. Of course, with Owen’s rangers out searching for more, there was a possibility that they’d turn up, and then a scale would come in handy. But not this scale.

 

“Actually, Arthur, I’d need something a little more accurate. This—”

 

“Accurate?” Arthur cried. “Good heavens, man, this is a Cusinart!”

Admittedly I'm not that familiar with 1990 scale technology but just the idea of using an uncalibrated kitchen scale for this...

There was a way to use bone weights to find out whether a set of bones had come from the same person, but you needed the right bones, and Gideon didn’t have them. Of course, with Owen’s rangers out searching for more, there was a possibility that they’d turn up, and then a scale would come in handy. But not this scale.

 

“Actually, Arthur, I’d need something a little more accurate. This—”

 

“Accurate?” Arthur cried. “Good heavens, man, this is a Cusinart!”

 

I can't really explain why I find this exchange so amusing, but there you have it. There are lots of great little snippets of dialogue in this book.

As always, the sound of his own rich, confident baritone pleased and soothed him. 

I think I've found the victim...