Format: Kindle, 351 pages
Release Date: March 5, 2024
Publisher: Montlake
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Mystery / Suspense
When human bones are found beneath an old chapel in the woods, evidence suggests the remains could be linked to the decades-old case of missing teen Annalise Jansen.
Homicide detective Jane Munro—pregnant and acutely attuned to the preciousness of life—hopes the grim discovery will finally bring closure to the girl’s family. But for a group of Annalise’s old friends, once dubbed the Shoreview Six by the media, it threatens to expose a terrible pledge made on an autumn night forty-seven years ago.
The friends are now highly respected, affluent members of their communities, and none of them ever expected the dark chapter in their past to resurface. But as Jane and forensic anthropologist Dr. Ella Quinn peel back the layers of secrets, the group begins to fracture. Will one cave? Will they turn on each other?
The investigation takes a sharp turn when Jane discovers a second body—that of the boy long blamed for Annalise’s disappearance. As the bones tell their story, the group learns just how far each will go to guard their own truth.
Homicide detective Jane Munro—pregnant and acutely attuned to the preciousness of life—hopes the grim discovery will finally bring closure to the girl’s family. But for a group of Annalise’s old friends, once dubbed the Shoreview Six by the media, it threatens to expose a terrible pledge made on an autumn night forty-seven years ago.
The friends are now highly respected, affluent members of their communities, and none of them ever expected the dark chapter in their past to resurface. But as Jane and forensic anthropologist Dr. Ella Quinn peel back the layers of secrets, the group begins to fracture. Will one cave? Will they turn on each other?
The investigation takes a sharp turn when Jane discovers a second body—that of the boy long blamed for Annalise’s disappearance. As the bones tell their story, the group learns just how far each will go to guard their own truth.
Loreth Anne White's The Unquiet Bones is based on a true unsolved crime that occurred in North Vancouver, Canada in 1976 where White resided as a young teen. A local sixteen-year-old girl disappeared after parting from her best friend and proceeding home alone. Her murder remains unsolved today, leaving loved ones in limbo without closure. This fictional account begins in April 2023 with the discovery of bones under Hemlock Mountain Ski Resort.
Back in 1976, a young woman named Annalise Jansen went missing after an argument with her best friend. At the same time, the boy she was alleged to have been seen with also disappeared without a trace. 47 years later, a construction crew doing reconstruction on an old chapel discovers the bones at a local ski resort. Sergeant Jane Munro, who is a veteran homicide investigator with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, gets the call.
Now working cold cases because of something that happened 6 months ago, and the fact that she is 6 months pregnant, Jane and her team, including Corporal Duncan Murtagh, must work together to solve a nearly 50-year-old mystery and finally bring closure to not only Annalise's family but a young black male, Darryl Hendricks, who disappeared around the same time. Jane considers herself to be a person who is a fixer. She solves and resolves, takes action, gets answers, finds bad guys, and closes cases at a remarkably high percentage.
But this case may test her limits of what she can do. As the clues are revealed, it does appear that the young woman has been found but now finding out who was responsible for her death may take a modern miracle. It may take even more of a miracle to decide if Darryl had anything to do with Annalise's disappearance, or if something worse befell him. But for a group of Annalise's old friends, once dubbed the Shoreview Six by the media, it threatens to expose a terrible pledge made on an autumn night 47 years ago.
The friends are now highly respected, affluent members of their communities, and none of them ever expected the dark chapter in their past to resurface. But as Jane and forensic anthropologist Dr. Ella Queen peel back the layers of secrets, an intrepid journalist, Angela Shaddock, is going to overturn the apple cart with her probing questions, and her ability to make people feel uncomfortable about what they know, and why they felt the need to remain quiet for almost 50 years about what really happened.
*Thoughts* Although this plot has been used frequently, what elevates this story a bit above the rest is the Science shared by Dr. Quinn about forensic genealogy and familial DNA testing. Testing that helped solve the Idaho murders last year. The main issue with this story is that the author chooses to use almost 10 different characters to tell her story. This includes all 6 members of the Shoreview Six: Rocco, Jill, Cara, Bob, Mary, and Claude. In addition, there is Jane’s POV, Annalise's sister Faith, and Angela Shaddock. I think the author did a good job of dragging out the mystery until the final chapters, but it didn't feel good reading about what really happened. In fact, I needed a really hot shower to rinse off the sickness I felt learning what really happened.
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