Review: The Skeleton Box by Bryan Gruley

A Mysterious Review of …

The Skeleton Box by Bryan Gruley. A Gus Carpenter Mystery.

Review summary: Good characters, great setting, so-so murder mystery plot. That about sums up this third, and potentially final, entry in this series. More often than not it seems like Gus is simply going through the motions, anxious to bring his investigation to a close but without any sense of accomplishment in doing so. (Click here for text of full review.)

Our rating:

The Skeleton Box
Bryan Gruley
A Gus Carpenter Mystery
Touchstone (June 2012)

Publisher synopsis: Mysterious break-ins are plaguing the small town of Starvation Lake. While elderly residents enjoy their weekly bingo night at St. Valentine’s Catholic Church, someone is slipping into their homes to rifle through financial and personal files. Oddly, the intruder takes nothing — yet the “Bingo Night Burglaries” leave the entire town uneasy.

Worry turns into panic when a break-in escalates to murder. Suddenly, Gus Carpenter, editor of the Pine County Pilot, is forced to investigate the most difficult story of his life. Not only is the victim his ex-girlfriend Darlene’s mother, but her body was found in the home of Bea Carpenter — Gus’s own mother. Suffering from worsening dementia and under the influence of sleeping pills, Bea remembers little of the break-in.

With the help of Luke Whistler, a former Detroit Free Press reporter who came north looking for slower days and some old-fashioned newspaper work, Gus sets out to uncover the truth behind the murder. But when the story leads him to a lockbox his mother has kept secret for years, Gus doesn’t realize that its contents could forever change his perception of Starvation Lake, his own family, and the value of the truth.