The Dark Bones

After her father’s apparent suicide, Canadian police detective Rebecca North returns home to the rural western part of her country. She left years ago, disappointed by the young love of her life, Ash Haugen. Convinced that her father’s suicide is suspicious, she begins an investigation that reveals twenty year old secrets and reunites her with Ash.

Technically, this could be classified as a romantic thriller. Not my favorite genre, but it was a riveting story. I didn’t want to put it down. The writing and character development are good, with the author painting a graphic picture of the brutal cold of winter in the northwest as well as the tough life many encounter there. My only criticism is that it was a bit long in parts and I show more found myself skimming more than once.

One thing I really liked about the book is that Rebecca is a savvy protagonist; she did not get herself into any stupidly dangerous situations, something that occurs all too often in thrillers.

This is the second in “A Dark Lure” series. I did not read the first, although, from what I understand, it featured some of the characters in this novel, although not Rebecca. I hope that if there is a third, Rebecca will be a central character. show less

The Dark Bones by Loreth Anne White is a 2019 Montlake publication.

My kind of romantic suspense!!

This is the long awaited follow up to ‘A Dark Lure’ and is every bit as thrilling as its predecessor! The story picks up pretty much were ‘Lure’ left off. While one doesn’t have to read the first book to enjoy this one, I do highly recommend doing so, just so will know Olivia and Tori’s backstory.

That said, this book follows Rebecca North who has returned to her small hometown after her father allegedly commits suicide. Rebecca refuses to accept that her father killed himself and begins investigating his death. This leads her to Tori, one of the main characters in book one, who, along with her new best friend, may have been show more witnesses to a crime.

Rebecca quickly learns her father was investigating a cold case- one which may involve Ash Haugen, Rebecca’s old boyfriend. Rebecca's feelings for Ash are still strong, but she also thinks Ash is hiding something, which makes her wonder just how much he knows and if he might even be a suspect.

The start of a new year is a good time to do a little housekeeping and make an attempt to become more organized. So, while cleaning up my virtual bookshelves, I noticed I had won a couple of books on Goodreads I never got around to reading. This is one of them. But, in my defense, I wanted to read the first book in the series before tackling this one- and I’m glad I did!

Not to sound like a broken record-as I think I may have said this same thing about Dark Lure, but as a person who whines a lot about the poor pickings in the romantic suspense category it is such a relief to know there are authors out there who are still writing traditional romantic suspense!

This is a dark, atmospheric thriller that had me turning pages at the speed of light and staying up past my bedtime, as well. The story has a great deal of substance, with excellent characterizations. The tension and angst between Rebecca and Ash practically pops off the page!

The suspense is taut, the emotions raw, the mystery is deep, and the second romance is the cherry on the cake!

Loved it! show less

The Dark Bones is a dangerous snow sled ride into the dark side of abuse, rape, and murder in a small town filled with betrayal and lost dreams. When Rebecca North's father commits suicide, she returns home to find out what led Noah to make such a dark decision to end his life. What she finds is more questions than answers as she reconnects with old friends and Ash, the love of her life who caused her to flee twenty years ago. This story, which features Olivia and Tori from A Dark Lure, grabs hold and doesn't let go until the ending I didn't see coming-kind of like a warm blanket after being caught in a blizzard. Loreth Anne White is gifted at creating wonderful, complicated characters, suspenseful yet believable plots while keeping the show more romantic tension flowing through the story. I highly recommend this very entertaining book to anyone who enjoys a good thriller. show less

This will be an untypically short review because this book was interesting enough but I had expected so much more: This books predecessor, “A Dark Lure”, was very, very suspenseful and exciting and told a really interesting story.

“The Dark Bones” features a few characters from the first book (namely Olivia and her daughter Tori) but deals with the murder of Noah North which his daughter, Rebecca, a white-collar-crime cop investigates. During the course of her investigation Rebecca meets her ex-boyfriend, Ash, again who quickly becomes a “person of interest” in this case and an older one about two missing kids.

As in the previous book, White’s career as a romance writer shines through and – again – her heroine falls show more for the handsome rugged second protagonist – it worked the first time so why not try to apply the successful formula again?

Which would be fine by me but somehow I was not as invested in both the story and the people this time around. Rebecca broke up with Ash because he cheated on her and met the girl again – she never asked him for the reason but just left. Ok, so some people do that, I get it, but if she really loved him so much that Rebecca never had any serious relationship again would she really just leave? Wouldn’t she at least ask him to explain himself before basically burning all bridges and leaving her home for good?

Either way, even when Rebecca becomes convinced of Ash’s innocence, she still feels that he harbours a huge dark secret – and instead of digging into him till he spills, she tries to distance herself emotionally – which didn’t work when he cheated and, surprise, surprise, doesn’t work now either.

The story takes a long time to pick up speed and when it does, it feels slightly rushed. The twist at the end doesn’t really feel right either – like it was “tacked on” in hindsight.

It’s pretty obvious what happened to the missing kids so that part of the story wasn’t as interesting as it could have been either. Among all the romance stuff and our heroine oscillating between loving her Ash and being wary about him I sadly sometimes lost interest in the entire proceedings.

Maybe it’s in fact that: The book is simply too long for what it has to tell us.





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Book two in a series but decided to give it a try after reading the reviews and I agree it was fantastic as a stand alone story. They gave you the very little background from the first book but you really didn't need it. Really enjoyed the characters and the story, it ended the way I wanted it too even though I kept going back and forth about if it would end that way while reading.

Rebecca North left the rural town of her upbringing behind long ago. She became a white collar crime cop in the big city. So when her father Noah calls out of the blue saying he needs to speak to her immediately regarding a cold case disappearance of Whitney Gaignon and her boyfriend. Before Rebecca can follow up with her dad, she is notified that he died in an apparent suicide. Rebecca comes home to settle her fathers affairs. Being a cop herself, she can’t help but start to investigate her father’s death. It quickly becomes apparent that the suicide story is not a complete story. It appears that the Whitney Gaignon disappearance may have played a role in her father’s death. The small town of Rebecca’s youth has many secrets show more that it’s residents aren’t willing to let come to light.

The story is a tale of redemption on many levels for most of the characters involved. It is also a story of healing through closing old wounds. A worthwhile mystery. Would recommend. show less

Not one of the better ones. The romantic relationship was a bit much