Good Blood

Aaron Elkins is a travelers dream. His books are well written, pleasant, fast-paced mystery adventures about a forensic anthropologist. I find them wonderful reads when traveling for work -- always fun, with enough plot and pacing to keep you reading on the plane.

It was supposed to be a peaceful vacation in Italy, but when his friend's relative is kidnapped, American forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver offers his assistance. The kidnapping was badly botched--resulting in the death of the chaufeur, but Italian police Colonel Caravale can't see any use for a high-powered bone man. They know what killed the chaufeur. Still, bones do turn up--on property owned by the aristocratic family of the kidnapped boy. And Caravale doesn't believe in coincidence. Still, could a skeleton that looks to have been underground for a decade have anything to do with a kidnapping? Caravale and Gideon overcome initial distrust and begin to work together as a team--but someone is watching and knows too much. Gideon finds that the decade-old murder poses real danger to him--in the present. What started out as a vacation just might end up terminal. Author Aaron Elkins combines the best elements of an Italian opera, forensic science, and an old-fashioned cozy in his well written and entertaining GOOD BLOOD. The aristocratic Italian family, with their internal feuds and snobish belief in the 'good blood' of the family, rings true as do Gideon and his friend Phil--the distant but looked down-on relative of the family who now makes his living giving cheap tours of the world. Elkins' strong descriptions make Italy come to life. Aaron Elkins is an Edgar Award Winner and with GOOD BLOOD it's easy to see why. I recommend this one highly.

A new visit with Professor Gideon Oliver, and Julie is always welcome. Mr. Elkins has the gift of description, be it a charming small lake side village in Italy, or the first sip of a local red wine. I was taken from the simplicity of old world values ,to the danger and complexity of searching for the truth of the identity of a murder victim , to the unraveling of a ingenious case of financial minipulation.Mr.Elkins has again spun a tale of finely crafted prose, and intelligent wit.

Once again Elkins has produced a well written entertainment peopled with characters I like to be in the company of. Excellent setting of scene and well drawn secondary characters more than make up for any lack of mystery.

In the village of Stresa, near Lake Maggiore, Italy a well planned kidnapping is carried out. Achille de Grazia, the sixteen-year-old heir to wealthy and aristocratic Vincenzo, the owner of numerous business enterprises and his own island, is being ransomed for the sum of five million Euros. While the family is raising the money, the bones of a murdered man are found at a de Grazia construction site.Forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver, his wife Julie and a de Grazia cousin Phil are in Stresa to host a "Travel of the Cheap Tour." The carbineer in the form of Colonel Caravale asks Gideon to help him identify the skeleton and find out the cause of death. With the information Gideon gives him, Caravale identifies the body of Vincenzo's father who was thought to be lost at sea. After Achille is returned, somebody tries to steal the bones and kill Gideon, making him believe that the two crimes are linked in some manner. Further investigation proves he is right but it does not get him any closer to identifying the perpetrator or the mastermind who is orchestrating events.After reading GOOD BLOOD, an appropriate title if ever there was one, readers will find themselves wishing they could go Italy and immerse themselves in the culture, just not the sidebar that Gideon becomes part of. With only a few days of holiday under his belt, Gideon is so antsy to get back to work that he leaps into the case and makes such a good impression on the colonel that he becomes his de facto partner. This is an exciting police procedural set among the blue bloods of Italian society.Harriet Klausner