A Baby's Bones
A Sage Westfield Novel
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4.4 • 16 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
An archaeologist stumbles upon a centuries-old crime—and the trail of a modern-day murderer—in this “finely observed, beautifully written” mystery for fans of Elly Griffiths (Daily Mail)
Archaeologist Sage Westfield has been called in to excavate a sixteenth-century well, and expects to find little more than soil and the odd piece of pottery. But the disturbing discovery of the bones of a woman and newborn baby make it clear that she has stumbled onto an historical crime scene—one that is interwoven with an unsettling local legend of witchcraft and unrequited love.
Yet there is more to the case than a four-hundred-year-old mystery. The owners of a nearby cottage are convinced that it is haunted, and the local vicar is being plagued with abusive phone calls. Then a tragic death makes it all too clear that a modern murderer is at work . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set on the Isle of Wight, this suspenseful mystery from British author Alexander (The Secrets of Blood and Bone) fuses the secrets of Renaissance-era alchemy and the knowledge wielded by modern archeology. When Sage Westfield, an archeologist hired to conduct a survey of a property adjoining a historic house, discovers the skeletons of a woman and an infant in a 16th-century well, she suspects that they were murdered. Alternating chapters, set in 1580 and narrated by Vincent Garland, the illegitimate steward of Lord Banstock, describe the events leading up to the deaths, which involve Banstock's beloved niece, Viola; Viola's fianc , an aristocrat with a taste for necromancy; and a beautiful French-born seamstress. Meanwhile, a brutal murder shocks the modern-day community, and the dangers of insanity and sexual obsession become frighteningly real in both timelines. Alexander fully develops Westfield and Garland's characters and keeps the stakes high throughout. Readers will hope this is the start of a series.
