Little Tiny Teeth
When forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver joins an Amazon riverboat expedition with a group of research botanists, he expects a nice, quiet vacation. What he gets is heat, headhunters, corrupt officials, jungle fevers, giant spiders, piranhas--and worse. As they travel upriver, one of the botanists is killed by a deranged passenger who leaps overboard and flees into the darkness. No one can explain why. Theories begin to simmer, and stories of long-past, half-forgotten grudges--and new ones as well--come boiling to the surface.
Only when a fresh corpse turns up on the bank of the river, scoured to the bone by ravening piranhas does Gideon Oliver, the celebrated Skeleton Detective, get a chance to apply his unique skills and knit the complex threads into a pattern that results in an astonishing, satisfying resolution.
"An ingenious story well told...that leaves the reader not only entertained but ... better educated also."
- The San Diego Union Tribune
"Grips the audience. Filled with foreboding and thick suspense."
- Midwest Book Review.
"A series that never disappoints."
- The Philadelphia Inquirer
Dying on the Vine
It was the unwavering custom of Pietro Cubbiddu, patriarch of Tuscany’s Villa Antica wine empire, to take a solitary sabbatical in the Apennines at the close of the grape harvest, leaving the winery in the trusted hands of his three sons. His wife Nola would take her own separate vacation. In exactly 30 days they would come home together.
Until, one year, they don't.
Months later, a hiker in the Apennines stumbles on their skeletal remains. The carabinieri investigate and release their findings: they are dealing with a murder-suicide. The evidence makes it clear that Pietro Cubbiddu shot and killed his wife and then himself. The likely motive: his discovery that Nola had been having an affair.
Not long afterwards, Gideon Oliver and his wife, Julie, are in Tuscany visiting their friends, the Cubbiddu offspring. The renowned Skeleton Detective is asked to reexamine the bones. When he does, he reluctantly concludes that the carabinieri, competent though they may be, have gotten almost everything wrong. Whatever it was that happened in the mountains, 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 carabinieri’s resentment. And when yet another Cubbiddu relation meets an unlikely end, it becomes clear that the killer is far from finished…
“Lively and entertaining.”
- The Seattle Times
"Elkins is a master.”
- The Dallas Morning News
The Gideon Oliver Series
Where There's a Will
...takes the Skeleton Detective to the vast, rolling ranch lands of the Big Island of Hawaii, where he finds himself enmeshed in old en"mities, old rivalries, old jealousies...and of course, old bones.
"Fabulous...(a) first-rate who-done-it...a fine tropical mystery."
- Midwest Book Review
"Stylish."
- The New York Times Book Review
"Elkins's writing skills are superb, his research impeccable, and his plots intriguing. (He) has established himself as a master craftsman."
- Booklist
Fellowship of Fear
This is where it all began: Gideon Oliver before the Edgar, before the TV series, before they called him the Skeleton Detective . . before even Julie. Fellowship of Fear is generally credited (or blamed, if you want to be uncharitable about it) with launching the modern forensic mystery.
"At last . . . A new Sherlock Holmes rises before us."
- The Houston Post
"Great stuff!"
- The New York Times
Uneasy Relations
Before the sun set on the last of the Neanderthals 25,000 years ago, was he living in peace with his smarter, handsomer cousins Homo sapiens (modern humans)? Or were the two deadly enemies? Archaeologists had debated this question for decades. Then, a spectacular find on the Rock of Gibraltar leaves everyone speechless ... and one person desperate--homicidally desperate.
"Absorbing... Gideon gets the job done without CSI gimmicks and glitz... In addition, Elkins offers readers a pleasant tour of the Rock and its neighborhood."
- Publishers Weekly
"Elkins... delivers a solid mystery."
- Library Journal
"No one does it better than Aaron Elkins."
- The San Diego Tribune
Make No Bones
Gideon Oliver faces his most formidable and clever antagonist--a murderous fellow anthropologist who knows every bit as much about disguising forensic clues as Gideon knows about uncovering them.
"Four stars. Well-plotted, intelligent murder fiction doesn't come any better."
- Chicago Sun-Times
"Witty, intelligent, and delightful."
- Washington Times
"(A) seamlessly plotted corker of a mystery."
- Publishers Weekly
Murder in the Queen's Armes
"But . . . but why would anyone steal a thirty-thousand-year-old parieto-occipital calvareal fragment?" asks the understandably distraught curator of the Dorchester Museum of Archaeology, staring at the empty case. "Beats the hell out of me," is Gideon's reply, but it doesn't take long for him to roll up his sleeves and get to work ferreting out the startling--and murderous--answer.
"A breathtakingly well-worked mystery."
- Booklist
"Murder, a singular detective, a winning supporting cast, humor--what more could we want from a mystery?"
- Chicago Sun-Times
Good Blood
Even on an Italian holiday, forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver and his wife can't seem to find any R & R. They're house guests at a palatial island estate in Lake Maggiore. But the breathtaking views and sumptuous food come at a price. The padrone's only child, Achille, has been kidnapped, buried bones are soon found . . . and Gideon must mix business with pleasure.
"Mr Elkins never fails to enlighten and entertain... His only failing is that he makes us wait too long between books."
- The Washington Times
"Vintage Elkins: well-drawn supporting characters, lovely scenery...a bit of interesting science (and a) cast of colorful characters."
-Library Journal.
Skeleton Dance
There is a small village in France that is known for three things: pâté de fois gras, truffles . . . and bones. Boasting the largest collection of prehistoric human fossils in Europe, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac is the home of the prestigious Institut de Préhistoire--where eminent scientists study ancient man and squabble . . . and perhaps, on occasion, commit murder. Gideon Oliver to the rescue!
"An enthralling novel... Highly readable, intelligently plotted, and painstakingly researched."
- Dallas Morning News
"Terrific... Mischievous wit, fascinating erudition, juicy (but never mean-spirited) academic gossip, and a gorgeous setting redolent with gitanes and goose liver all combine to make this mystery an especially delectable treat."
- Publishers Weekly
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Dead Men's Hearts
A role in a documentary film draws Gideon Oliver to Egypt's famed Valley of the Nile, where he expects an undemanding week of movie-star treatment and a top-of-the-line river cruise with his wife Julie. But when a skeleton unexpectedly turns up in Luxor's Egyptological Institute's garbage dump, he's called on to employ all his skills and intuition to prevent the appearance of more corpses.
"The heart of the book ... Is Gideon Oliver's expertise, his ability to look at a smattering of bones and, if not solve the crime, at least tell an awful lot about the victim. He does that twice this time, and, as usual, one wishes he had a chance to do it more."
- Baltimore Sun
"Elkins once again exhibits his uncanny ability to make forensic research exciting."
- Chicago Sun-Times
Twenty Blue Devils
"Gideon Oliver is up to his elbows in bones, stones, and murder in gorgeous Tahiti, at the Paradise Coffee plantation, producer of the world's most expensive coffee, the winey, luscious Blue Devil.
"Whimsical. Intricately plotted. ... Terribly clever."
- Entertainment Weekly
Zipping along at a smooth and rapid clip...Elkins rewards his readers with a riveting mystery even while altering forever the way they will view their trendy, upscale coffee."
- Publishers Weekly
Old Bones
Winner of the Edgar Award for the Best Novel of the year "With the roar of thunder," goes the old Breton nursery song, "and the speed of a galloping horse, comes the tide to Mt. St. Michel." Family secrets, murders, and old Nazis in Normandy.
Voted one of the Hundred Best Mysteries of the Twentieth Century by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association and selected by Reader's Digest for its "Best Mysteries of All Time" collection.
"The action gallops along as fast and compelling as the tide itself."
- Publishers Weekly
"A nice touch of humor... A likeable, down-to-earth, cerebral sleuth."
- Chicago Tribune
"(A) look at our collective family tree, nuts and all."
- San Francisco Chronicle
Icy Clutches
In the 1960s. three members of a scientific expedition are killed in a tremendous glacial avalanche in Alaska. Decades later, human bones begin popping out of the foot of the glacier. The remains of the scientists? Well, yes, but there is something very strange about them, and Gideon Oliver is the man to find out what it is.
"A marvelous mystery."
- The Baltimore Sun-Times
"Gideon Oliver, that most engaging forensic anthropologist, solves a lulu here....Aaron Elkins is witty, and oh so clever with that final twist."
- New York Daily News
Curses!
Mayan ruins in the Yucatan . . . a secret room in a tomb . . . a prehistoric skeleton. To Gideon Oliver, the archaeological site of Tlaloc is paradise on earth. Until the horrible Mayan curse that was laid on "despoilers" of the ancient graves begins coming true, literally and murderously.
"Curses! Is a pleasure . . . Sit back and enjoy it while wallowing around in all that deliciously obscure and newly learned information"
- USA Today
"You go around digging in a Mayan tomb ... Riling all those righteous gods, so what do you expect for your trouble? A curse is what; or more precisely, curses! ...The hero's enthusiastic lectures on human bones make him fascinating company."
- New York Times Book Review
The Dark Place
The second Gideon Oliver novel. A small pile of bones--all that remains of a hiker who vanished years ago in the Olympic Peninsula's dense, remote, primeval rainforest--but more than enough for Gideon Oliver to deduce that someone, or something, of superhuman strength had killed him . . . with a bone spear point! And now a young woman has disappeared as well. What's out there?
"A thundering adventure, to be savored for Elkins' insouciant wit, the thrill of the chase and, not least the love affair between Gideon and Julie"
- Publishers Weekly
Skull Duggery
Anthropology professor Gideon Oliver and his wife JulIe head for a vacation in the charming little Mexican village of Teotitlan Del Valle, in the out-of-the-way state of Oaxaca. Up to his ears in forensic work at home, the celebrated "Skeleton Detective" looks forward to a week of leisure and touring. Teotitlán is an out-of-the-way weaver's village, peaceful and virtually crime- and drug-free.
What could go wrong? Plenty.
"Atmospheric ... A suspenseful puzzle ... The final revelations should leave you--but not the unflappable bone detective--pleasantly surprised."
- Publishers Weekly
"Elkins knows how to string his readers along in the best of ways. His plot twists are satisfying, the forensic savvy is top-notch,and the exotic cultural aspects of the story are a pleasure."
- The Tacoma News Tribune
Switcheroo
By Aaron Elkins
The latest...and the final...Gideon Oliver.
A cold case dating from the 1960s draws him to Britain's remote and exotic Channel Islands half-a-century later to shine a light on the mysterious circumstances surrounding the separate, still-unsolved homicides of two men who died there on the same night.
It's no surprise when Gideon's modern-day forensic investigation upends the fifty-year old conclusions of the island police and various "experts," but no one expects that his examination of old bones will turn up fresh bodies. But old bones tell many tales and when old murders come to light, they have a way of leading to new ones. The now-competent Jersey police are on the case, but it falls to the Skeleton Detective to be at his sharpest to put all the pieces together...and to keep the body count from mounting still higher.
"No one does it better than Aaron Elkins.”
- The San Diego Union-Tribune
“The whole world is Gideon Oliver’s playing field in Elkins’s stylish mysteries"
- The New York Times Book Review
Unnatural Selection
Forensic anthropology professor Gideon Oliver accompanies his park-ranger wife to the remote, idyllic Isles of Scilly, which dot the sea like an emerald necklace thirty miles off the Cornwall coast. Julie's been invited here by Russian expatriate Vasily Kozlov, scientist, millionaire, and eccentric. At his home, the sixteenth-century Star Castle, he regularly hosts a consortium of ecological experts with very differing opinions-which makes for some extremely heated arguments.
While Julie's stuck indoors consorting, Gideon looks forward to puttering around the Neolithic sites nearby. But before day one is through, a newer bone turns up--this tibia is only a few years old-and all signs point to murder. And just as Gideon and the local law puzzle over the bone's origin, there's another murder at Star Castle. Could it just be bad luck, two murders in this tranquil little community within a couple of years? Or do Kozlov's lively debates have a way of turning deadly?
"The pleasure of summer reading lies not in resolution but in investigation, and Elkins keeps things moving with plenty of local atmosphere, compelling characterization, and a refreshingly low level of violence."
- Natural History Magazine
"When Agatha Christie was the world's most popular author, the whodunit consisted largely of a puzzle wherein the reader was challenged to come up with the solution before reaching the final pages. Today, the emphasis is on shock rather than surprise, and the eccentric sleuth of yesteryear has been all but offed by the maniacal serial killer. But there remains a stubborn handful of writers who continue to labor in that gentler genre. Among them, no one does it better than Aaron Elkins."
- The San Diego Union Tribune