BAD BONES

In Ingraffia’s novel, a successful writer of mysteries finds himself at the center of a real one when he unearths a human skull in his front yard.

In this third installment of the author’s Charlie McGinley Mystery series, Charlie attempts to plant a tree in his New Mexico front yard because his jazz-loving adoptive father, Buddy, says that “planting a tree when you have a kid is good luck.” Charlie’s wife (his third), Mickey, is expecting their second child in a matter of months. But instead of resulting in luck, Charlie’s digging produces a skull, and when a team of authorities gets involved, they find more bones, including two additional skulls, each with a bullet hole in the back. Walter Reddeck, the mayor of the tiny town of Coyote Falls, is part of the investigative team, as is Professor Malia Chee, the youngest tenured instructor in the Forensic Anthropology Department at the University of New Mexico, and its only Indigenous woman. Also present is Connie Cruz, editor of the local paper, and an ex-friend of Chee’s for reasons unknown. Because Charlie is accustomed to researching the books he writes, he works to solve his front yard mystery. But Chee warns him repeatedly to back off, especially when he comes up with a much more recent date for the killings than she does. In addition to his research, Charlie is guided by Ben, his long-dead Navajo spirit guide. Charlie also talks about the case to his dead birth mother, a Navajo “dream talker.” Some readers may be turned off by the inclusion of not-of-this world characters who help solve the mystery, but others will enjoy the book’s magical realism. The human characters are fleshed out and often humorous until turning deadly. The backstory could be trimmed, but in general, the pacing is good, and painterly descriptions of the area are woven throughout the narrative. Although this novel is part of a series, it could stand as a read-alone.

Proverbial skeletons in closets and actual ones buried in the yard help make this a bone-ified good mystery.