Showing results for "Skull Duggery" in All Categories

When Gideon Oliver and his wife, Julie, are in Tuscany visiting the Cubbiddu family, the renowned Skeleton Detective is asked to reexamine the remains of a mysterious family tragedy. Pietro Cubbiddu, former patriarch of the Villa Antica wine empire, is thought to have killed his wife and then himself in the remote mountains of the Apennines. It does not take long for Gideon to deduce that, whatever happened, a murder-suicide it was not. Soon Gideon finds himself in a morass of family antipathies, conflicts, and mistrust, to say nothing of the local authority's resentment.

Buried ceremoniously, high in a cave on the Rock of Gibraltar, lies the skeleton of a human woman, clutching the skeleton of a part-human, part-Neanderthal child. Fascinated, Professor Oliver jumps at the chance to visit the site. But two deaths, possibly murders, have rocked Gibraltar. As Oliver tries to piece things together, he's about to fall for some deadly tricks. After all, unlike the Gibraltar Boy, he's only human. 

Sailing the Amazon with a group of botanists, "Skeleton Detective" Gideon Oliver is on his dream vacation. But it turns nightmarish when fierce head-hunters narrowly miss killing the group leader, then a deranged passenger kills a botanist and flees. Long-past enmities and resentments - and new ones as well-might explain things. And when a fresh skeleton turns up in the river, Gideon is sure that, in this jungle full of predators, humans may be the deadliest of all. 

A cold case dating from the 1960s draws forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver to the Channel Islands decades later to shine a light on the mysterious connection between two men who died there on the same night.

Alex Torkelsson has just gotten word: His late uncle Magnus's plane has been found south of Hawaii's Big Island after 10 long years. So too have Magnus' few skeletal remains, now handed over to the only man who can fit together the pieces of this mystery. What forensic detective Gideon Oliver discovers could shake the Torkelsson family tree to its very roots. But this time his work is yielding more questions about the past than answers. Questions about the long-ago execution-style murder of Magnus's brother...about a mysterious will that benefits - as well as incriminates - its heirs.

What was supposed to be an Italian vacation for forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver and his wife turns into a busman's holiday when their hosts' only child goes missing - and nearby construction workers unearth human bones. The family awaits Oliver's conclusions with both dread and cautious hope. But along the way, he'll expose some extraordinary deceptions that lay bare the long-hidden secrets at the dark heart of a highborn family. 

An ancient skeleton tossed in a garbage dump is the first conundrum to rattle Gideon Oliver when he arrives in Egypt. There to appear in a documentary film, he expects an undemanding week of movie star treatment and a luxurious cruise up the Nile with his wife, Julie. But then Gideon discovers a tantalizing secret in the discarded bones - and violence claims a famous Egyptologist's life. Plying his calipers as the world's foremost forensic anthropologist, Gideon's investigation of the goings-on leads him through the back alleys and bazaars of Cairo.

Gideon Oliver expects to be amicably bored when he takes on the role of "accompanying spouse" at a lodge in the magnificent wild country of Glacier Bay, Alaska, where his forest ranger wife, Julie, is attending a conference. But it turns out to be exactly his cup of tea. There is another group at the lodge: six scientists on a memorial journey to the site of a 30-year-old glacial avalanche that killed three of their colleagues. Their leader is TV's most popular science personality, the unctuous M. Audley Tremaine - the sole survivor of the fatal avalanche. But he does not survive long.

Anthropology Professor Gideon Oliver would prefer to keep his mind on his beautiful new bride, Julie, during their English honeymoon, but one intrusive question will not stop nagging at him: Who would want to steal a 30,000-year-old parieto-occipital calvarial fragment? Yet someone has lifted this chunk of prehistoric human skull from a musty museum in Dorchester. Then, 30 miles away, an archaeology student is murdered, increasing tension and suspicion at a dig that had already seethed with suspicion, rivalry, and mistrust.

Mayan ruins in the Yucatán...a secret room in a tomb...age-old skeletons. To anthropologist Gideon Oliver, the renowned Skeleton Detective, the invitation to join the archaeological excavation of Tlaloc promises two months of paradise on Earth. That is, until an ancient series of Mayan curses against desecrators of the site is unearthed.

Deep in the primeval rainforest of Washington state's Olympic Peninsula, the skeletal remains of a murdered man are discovered. And a strange, unsettling tale begins to unfold, for forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver determines that the murder weapon was a primitive bone spear of a type not seen for the last 10,000 years. And whoever - or whatever - hurled it did so with seemingly superhuman force. Bigfoot "sightings" immediately crop up, but Gideon is not buying them.   

There is not much left of the irascible Albert Evan Jasper, "dean of American forensic anthropologists," after his demise in a fiery car crash. But in accord with his wishes, his remains are installed in an Oregon museum to create a fascinating if macabre exhibit. All agree that it is a fitting end for a great forensic scientist - until what is left of him disappears in the midst of the biannual meeting of the august WAFA - the Western Association of Forensic Anthropologists - in nearby Bend, Oregon. Like his fellow attendees, Gideon Oliver - the Skeleton Detective - is baffled. 

"With the roar of thunder and the speed of a galloping horse comes the tide to Mont St. Michel", goes the old nursery song. So when the aged patriarch of the du Rocher family falls victim to the perilous tide, even the old man's family accepts the verdict of accidental drowning. But too quickly, this "accident" is followed by a bizarre discovery in the ancient du Rocher chateau: a human skeleton, wrapped in butcher paper, beneath the old stone flooring. Professor Gideon Oliver, lecturing on forensic anthropology at nearby St. Malo, is asked to examine the bones.

Lee Ofsted and Graham Sheldon, her ex-cop fiance, have decided to take advantage of the glorious setting of the historic Royal Mauna Kea Golf and Country Club to have a quiet wedding ceremony. But from the start things go awry, partly on account of the influx of treasure hunters determined to find the club's most famous lost possession, the Cumberland Cup, commissioned from the great Louis Comfort Tiffany in 1908. Then real disaster strikes.

New Mexico has more than its share of unique and well-publicized attributes, but the one they prefer to play down is the fact that they lead the United States in lightning deaths per capita. Thus, the Cottonwood Creek Country Club of Los Alamos, which is hosting the High Desert Women's Classic golf tournament, takes elaborate measures to ensure that the numbers don't go up during the high-profile tournament. Nevertheless, disaster strikes.

Walter Nash began a journey down a dark path of seemingly no return, and now he finds himself questioning everything that got him there in this thrilling sequel to Nash Falls from #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci. Walter Nash, working under the alias of Dillon Hope, is on the...

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, Oprah Daily, Today, BookPage, Goodreads, and more From the iconic crime writer who “inspires cultic devotion in readers” (The New Yorker) and has been called “incandescent”...

When Nigel Baxter, a middle-aged married banker with an unremarkable past, is found dead in the bath of a plush hotel suite, his wrists slit, it looks as if he's taken his own life. At first. But when Detective Inspector Daniel Riley is assigned to the case, he soon realises all isn't as it first appears to be. When a postmortem shows Baxter was poisoned, Riley suspects foul play. And then there's the odd addition of a teddy bear left at the crime scene....

When Walter Nash is recruited by the FBI to help bring down a global crime network his life is turned completely upside down in this thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci. Nash is an intelligent man, tough but fair-minded. He has a wife and a daughter and a very...

An instant #1 New York Times bestseller! The first thrilling mystery in the new North Falls series from Karin Slaughter, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Girls and the Will Trent Series. Welcome to North Falls—a small town where everyone knows everyone. Or so they think. Until...

Lee Child says it’s “stunning… certain to be a book of the year.” Kathy Reichs calls it “extraordinary… a major achievement.” Gillian Flynn says of Karin Slaughter: “I’d follow her anywhere.” Sisters. Strangers. Survivors. More than twenty years ago, Claire and Lydia’s...

FBI agent Sarah Cole is stunned to receive an invitation to the “Game of Nines,” the most secretive and longest-running murder puzzle in history. Thrust into a mystery that has confounded law enforcement for decades, she proves to be an unexpectedly formidable "player"—and might finally end the deadly game once and for all.

Victoria’s life isn’t as perfect as it seems. But with two homicide detectives on her doorstep, it's about to get a lot worse. Still reeling from the shocking discovery that her husband is having an affair, Victoria struggles to process the mind-blowing news that Nick’s lover is dead—murdered in cold blood on the very same evening she uncovered the truth. And now two detectives are on her doorstep, waiting to question both of them. Is she a suspect?

NOW A MAJOR NETFLIX TV SERIES STARRING TESSA THOMPSON WITH JESSICA CHASTAIN AS EXECUTIVE PRODUCER "Richard Armitage and Stephanie Racine give an arresting performance of this dark psychological thriller...As secrets are uncovered and additional bodies are found, Armitage and Racine shine with...

Introducing Detective Stilwell: a cop relentlessly following his mission in the seemingly idyllic setting of Catalina Island. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Stilwell has been “exiled” to a low-key post policing rustic Catalina Island, after department politics drove him off a...

Twenty-eight years ago, Charlotte and Samantha Quinn's happy small-town family life was torn apart by a terrifying attack on their family home. It left their mother dead. It left their father - Pikeville's notorious defense attorney - devastated. And it left the family fractured beyond repair, consumed by secrets from that terrible night. Twenty-eight years later, Charlie has followed in her father's footsteps to become a lawyer herself - the ideal good daughter. But when violence comes to Pikeville again, Charlie is plunged into a nightmare.

In the crisp mountain air of central Oregon, a teenage girl’s search for discarded cans leads to a horrifying discovery: a body, brutally murdered and abandoned in the woods. The case falls to Deschutes County Detective Noelle Marshall, who finds herself navigating a community steeped in secrets, suspicion, and distrust of outsiders—especially law enforcement.

Kelly Roth, FBI profiler, returns home to Syracuse to stop a sadistic serial killer. Three murders in three separate jurisdictions in central New York State have the same pattern: women killed by fatal headshots from a hunting rifle. Kelly Roth is sent from Virginia to help the local police. Each victim was found murdered in a remote area or in a quiet park. The media call him “The Park Killer.” But Kelly doesn’t think the killer lurks in the bushes. She thinks he hunts his victims somewhere else.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly, the Lincoln Lawyer is back with a case against an AI company whose product may have been responsible for the murder of a young girl. Following his “resurrection walk” and need for a new direction, Mickey Haller turns to public...

Discover the classic thriller that launched the bestselling detective series from the world's most popular storyteller. Alex Cross is in a race against time after two private-school children are kidnapped by their teacher—a man looking to commit the crime of the century. The inspiration for...

In the city of Atlanta, young women are dying—at the hands of a killer who signs his work with a single, chilling act of mutilation. Leaving behind enough evidence to fuel a frenzied police hunt, this cunning madman is bringing together dozens of lives, crossing the boundaries of wealth and...

This bestselling legal thriller follows the charismatic defense attorney, Mickey Haller, as he takes on a slam-dunk court case involving a Beverly Hills playboy—but as it spirals into a nightmare, he finds himself in a fight for his life. Inspiration for the #1 Netflix series The Lincoln...

US Marshal Arliss Cutter is a born tracker. Raised in the swamplands of Florida, he honed his skills in the military, fought in the Middle East, and worked three field positions for Marshal Services. When it comes to tracking someone down - or taking someone out - Cutter's the best. But his newest assignment is taking him out of his comfort zone to southeast Alaska. Cold, dark, uninhabited forests that are often shrouded in fog. And it's the kind of case that makes his blood run cold.

The first Grant County novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author, Karin Slaughter, introducing Sara Linton of the acclaimed Will Trent Series. “A bull’s-eye, deftly crafted. . . . Slaughter’s plotting is brilliant, her suspense relentless.” —Washington Post A small Georgia town...

Erebus Resort, occupying a magnificent, hundred-thousand acre valley deep in the Colorado Rockies, offers guests the experience of viewing woolly mammoths, Irish Elk, and giant ground sloths in their native habitat, brought back from extinction through the magic of genetic manipulation. When a billionaire's son and his new wife are kidnapped and murdered in the Erebus back country by what is assumed to be a gang of eco-terrorists, Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent Frances Cash partners with county sheriff James Colcord to track down the perpetrators.

Thomas Austin was once a prominent NYPD detective, known for locking up a psychopathic serial killer dubbed "The Holiday Baby Butcher". Now retired in a small beach town in the Pacific Northwest, Austin runs a little café, trying to overcome the loss of his wife, a DA who was gunned down only one year ago.