Dry Bones

By: Peter May

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

What happened to Jacques Gaillard? The brilliant teacher at the École Nationale d’Administration, who trained some of France’s best and brightest as future prime ministers and presidents, vanished ten years ago, presumably from Paris. This ten-year-old mystery inspires a bet—one that Enzo Macleod, a biologist teaching in Toulouse, France, instead of pursuing a brilliant career in forensics back home in Scotland, can ill afford to lose. The wager is that Enzo can find out what happened to Jacques Gaillard by applying new science to a cold case.

Enzo goes to Paris to meet journalist Roger Raffin, the author of a book on seven celebrated unsolved murders, the assumption being that Gaillard is dead. He needs Raffin’s notes, and armed with these, he begins his quest. It quickly has him touring landmarks such as the Paris catacombs and a château in Champagne, digging up relics and bones. Then Enzo finds the actual head of Jacques Gaillard. The artifacts buried with the skull set him to interpreting the clues they provide and following in someone’s footsteps—maybe more than one someone—seeking the rest of Gaillard’s remains and reviewing some ancient and recent history. As with any quest, it’s as much discovery as detection, and Enzo, despite all his missteps, proves to be an ace investigator, scientific and intuitive, who definitely meets his goals.

Peter May is a Scottish television screenwriter, novelist, and crime writer. He has won several literary awards for his novels.

©2006 Peter May (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“This travelogue-cum-murder mystery makes for a fun puzzle.” ( Publishers Weekly)

“A thoroughly engaging puzzle.” ( Library Journal)

Great Circle Mystery!

Loved this book! Good twists, nice circular pattern, everything works. Loved the narration. Melodic, timely and planned!

Too cryptic By far.

A murder investigation with clues and evidence plucked from the sky. Wasted a credit here.

Beautifully Narrated and fascinating

The interweaving of history with an intriguing plot and rich characters made this book thoroughly enjoyable! I can't say enough about the narrator whose command of various accents and voices was surprising! His performance enriched the story well beyond what I would have expected. I'll definitely look for more novels by this author and for this narrator.

too complicated to really enjoy

the narrator was excellent - plot was unbelievably complex. not a great listen in the long run.

Engaging hero, stellar narration

Comparisons to Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code are valid, as much of Dry Bones is a scavenger hunt for clues to a murder. In my opinion, Peter May’s writing is stronger, particularly in character development. I never really got Langdon, but Enzo MacLeod – now that’s a flesh and bone character. Middle aged and a little worse for wear, he’s flawed, has made mistakes and has regrets. But he’s smart, intuitive and has a big heart. The supporting characters are also believable, with lives of their own aside from their roles in progressing the plot.

The one weakness in the story is how long it took to get through the scavenger hunt, which did little to suggest motive or possible suspects for the murder. It dragged us around Paris and the surrounding countryside, but the hunt was mostly engaging with unexpected mayhem thrown in along the way so it’s not wasted time. The final third of the story is where the dots get connected and it kicked into a new gear. Although the ultimate motivation for the murder was a little soft, the action was good.

I tuned into this series because I truly loved May’s “Lewis Trilogy” (sadly no longer available to Audible in the US), and wanted more of his writing. I’ve started with this first one and will continue on, definitely cherry picking the ones narrated by Simon Vance. His ability to give credible voice to MacLeod’s Scottish brogue, the various French characters, male, female, young and old, was a significant factor in relating to the entire cast.

Reader

Reader needs to be able to pronounce French names and cannot. A Scottish accent is appropriate for some of the characters only. Otherwise he has a lovely voice and performs very well.

Good book!

This was a very enjoyable book. The plot was exciting and kept me interested throughout the book. The narrator was just awesome and totally nailed the Scottish brogues and the French accents. There were several times during the book that I laughed and/or smiled at the sly humor. I must admit that at times I did get a little lost with all the French words and locations used, but I'm trying to broaden my horizons and this is just a step in that direction! Be aware that there are a lot of sexual innuendos and even a few scenes that are pretty explicit, so maybe not a good choice for a family road trip! I will be reading further books by this author!!!

Great narrator

Really enjoyed this book. Interesting characters and the narrator was wonderful. I would listen to more books with this author and narrator combination.

Intellectually challenging plot, very interesting "detective"

Really enjoyed this compelling story, launched by a bet between friends. It's French setting and plot full of places and history in the form of clues makes it even more interesting. This mystery is driven by a well-developed Scottish professor who has two daughters who have never met. They contribute to an interesting emotional sub-plot.
I look forward to more mysteries featuring this cast of characters in an intellectually challenging plot!

Very Good Peter May Book

This book started a little slowly but was very interesting once I got into it. It has lots of twists and turns. I did not work out the final piece to the puzzle on my own. Simon Vance is a wonderful narrator. If you like complex stories, you'll like Dry Bones.