Vanessa Lillie’s mystery, The Bone Thief, will be released Oct. 28, and it will be available through The Poisoned Pen close to release date. You can pre-order a copy through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4pTJ6TY
While you’re waiting to get it, check out Oline Cogdill’s review of The Bone Thief, originally published in the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Book review: Suspenseful ‘The Bone Thief’ delves into treatment of American Indian communities
‘The Bone Thief’ by Vanessa Lillie; Berkley; 384 pages; $30
Vanessa Lillie delves deeply into the treatment of American Indian communities and the preservation of their remains in “The Bone Thief,” her second formidable novel about Cherokee archaeologist Syd Walker.
Lillie’s attention to the intricacies of American Indian culture made her 2023 book, “Blood Sisters,” a standout. She brings those same high standards to the dynamic “The Bone Thief,” giving a detailed look at history and culture while never allowing this to override the gripping plot.
Syd’s promotion in the Rhode Island Bureau of Indian Affairs, after her boss’ retirement, gets off to an odd start. An anonymous caller tells her that remains, possibly from the local Narragansett Reservation, have been found at Camp Quahog. Although it’s the middle of the night, Syd worries that the elements, or scavengers, could harm the remains, which are of a female infant who died about 300 years ago.
But just as Syd begins to process the remains, the mysterious caller who works at the camp forces her to leave, saying she doesn’t have permission to be on that private land.
Quahog is a summer camp run by the Founders Society, whose members trace their ancestry back to the Mayflower. The Founders Society has a grand plan to build a state-of-the-art museum dedicated to the history of the first colonists with a floor devoted to American Indians. Syd agrees to help sift through the artifacts, but only if representatives of the Narragansett tribe can assist to make sure preservation is done with respect and according to custom.
A couple days later, the remains disappear, and Syd learns that other remains have disappeared through the years.
As she investigates, a Narragansett teenager who once interned for Syd and worked at the camp disappears.
Dark secrets begin to spill out about the Founders Society, whose wealthy and powerful members claim ancestral rights over contested land, revisiting the tensions between the American Indians and European colonists who attempted to wipe out the Narragansetts.
“The Bone Thief” examines how and by whom history is written and how violence perpetuated centuries ago can continue to reverberate for generations. Syd again emerges as a strong character, passionate about American Indian culture. She is well-aware of the dark history of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, whose original mission was to “solve the Indian problem.” Now the agency is trying to establish trust with indigenous communities. “Genocide of people and culture was the North Star for so long,” Syd knows.
Lillie, an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, delivers a multi-layered plot that skillfully weaves history and culture into the suspenseful “The Bone Thief.” This should prove to be a long-running series.