The Bones She Buried

What an outrageous, spine-tingling, great murder mystery. Lisa Regan is once again at the top of her game in this dark, devious book. It has murder, heart breaking grief, love, misplaced emotions, questionable choices and strong characters - ones that you can admire, root for, dislike and maybe even hate.

I read this Josie Quinn installment in one sitting and although satisfied when I finished I was equally bereft because I had finished. How does Lisa Regan do it over and over again? ! Each book is better as each character becomes more well defined while each plot is (I hate to use the word) AMAZING.

“A completely gripping, heart-stopping crime thriller”


Nah, it’s not, just joking. This is just an annoying trend (lately?) to add such marketing bullshit to the title of any books feared not to sell otherwise – or so it seems.

“The Bones She Buried” is, of course, neither completely gripping nor, fortunately, heart-stopping. It’s pretty much a bog-standard police procedural featuring Josie Quinn, a thirty-something (I guess?) police detective in Pennsylvania (which doesn’t matter at all because the setting is usually completely generic), who is investigating for the fifth time now with the usual staff who, so far, "covered cases so shocking and high-profile, they’d made national news.”

And, of course, Josie will show more eventually “[unravel] a scandal so massive and so complex that it’s still sending shockwaves through not just the region but the entire nation.” And it all starts with the murder of someone close to her.

Honestly, all that thickly-applied pathos is not even necessary: Sure, Lisa Regan (whose surname I tend to “prominently” misspell) will never become a new Hemingway or Shakespeare. That’s just fine, though, because the “absolutely unputdownable” “crime thrillers” she writes as if there was no tomorrow, are entertaining, well-paced, sometimes amusing, and always suspenseful.

Compared to many other books, this is fastfood – best devoured quickly and in secret, feeling slightly guilty over the wasted hours but, ultimately, happy to have read something that entertained me without taxing me.

Well, at times things do get a bit... complex:

“Josie’s ex-fiancé, Luke Creighton’s sister had a farm up in Sullivan County, so Josie had been there before.”

Such things happen if you mass-produce like Regan (but at least I don’t have to wait long for each new instalment):



Vanishing Girls: A totally heart-stopping crime thriller (Detective Josie Quinn Book 1) Jan 17, 2018

The Girl With No Name: Absolutely gripping mystery and suspense (Detective Josie Quinn Book 2) Apr 19, 2018

Her Mother's Grave: Absolutely gripping crime fiction with unputdownable mystery and suspense (Detective Josie Quinn Book 3) Jul 19, 2018

Her Final Confession: An absolutely addictive crime fiction novel (Detective Josie Quinn Book 4) Nov 28, 2018

The Bones She Buried: A completely gripping, heart-stopping crime thriller (Detective Josie Quinn Book 5) Mar 27, 2019



So, if you can enjoy a run-of-the-mill police procedural, you can’t go wrong with Lisa Regan. show less

The premise wasn't bad, interesting even and fast-paced at times so that I didn't want to put the book down. But the characterization and some of the execution felt flawed, and not in a meaningful way.

I spent most of the book hating Noah and Laura because they were such protracted assholes, and even Josie herself could have made some better decisions. Noah, being a fellow police officer, should have known from their prior cases that murder investigations always turn up unwanted questions that need to be answered, even if the victim is his own mother. But Josie probably shouldn't have been the one asking those questions if she didn't want conflict - there were other officers working the case, after all. Also, she comes across too needy show more when she keeps trying to call and text Noah every other chapter, when he clearly wants nothing to do with her. If that's how he wanted to be, she should've given in to a little pride and anger and given him so much space he'd have to sail the seven seas to get back into her good graces. Especially when there are bigger priorities at hand, like catching murderers on the loose. Ain't no time for pettiness when lives are at stake, or however the saying goes.

Laura, meanwhile, is a straight up drama queen who seems to exist for the sake of messing with Josie and Noah's relationship. She shares some of Noah's asshole syndrome (maybe it's a sibling thing), but also gives off a particularly targeted hatred for Josie, going so far as to take Noah's phone to tell her to stay away. And some of her other decisions are downright illogical - first she tries to keep Josie away from Colette's funeral because she "isn't family," then angrily insists on her going to lunch with the family afterwards. Excuse me, what!? Maybe we're supposed to excuse this behavior since she's heavily pregnant, but I'm pretty sure not all pregnant women are demonic Karens.

Mysteriously, we get to see both Noah and Laura redeem themselves by the end of the story, but it feels like a too little, too late type of situation. They practically did a 180 from how they were behaving before. And with how rushed events were by that time, it was almost as if the author wanted to wrap everything up nicely before she missed her chance. Don't get me started on some of the confessions either - true, there was a lot of clue hunting before solid evidence of the perpetrators turned up, and this was my favorite part of the book, but I find it hard to believe that anyone willing to bury a crime for decades would suddenly wax poetic about it when interrogated.

Basically, this book has the makings of a great detective novel, but could still use some improvements. I'm not sure if I'll give the next books a shot, given that there are 15 others in the series and I randomly picked up book 5. I can only hope the plot and characters get better from this point on, though. show less

What a tragic beginning to a enthralling story! Stressed out, but happy to be with her partner Noah Fraley, Detective Josie Quinn is headed to his mother's for dinner. Devastatingly, thy discover Noah's mother, Colette, dead in the back garden. Shocked, weary and full of disbelief, Noah is beside himself. Josie is in full cop mode. She desperately looks for the killer.

Josie must act fast, because things look very, very bad. Upon searching through Colette's home, a hidden file is called and it is labelled "Drew Pratt". This puts a difficult layer on whatever has happened to Colette. The woman was practically a saint. However, there was a lot of damaging things turned up and it seems Colette was involved in nefarious activities.

Can Josie show more track down anyone related to Pratt? Unfortunately, inasmuch as they locate Pratt's daughter, she, too, has been murdered. What was Colette keeping secret? Well, these murders proved to be only the tip of the iceberg. To say more would definitely be adding spoilers.

With Josie investigating Colette's background it is no surprise that this wedges a gap between her and Noah. So, this crime thriller has a great emotional edge. All the while, secrets and lies are being exposed. I have read two of the books in this compelling series. Although it has been months, when I read the first two or three lines, I clearly remembered Josie, Noah, Gretchen and others. I felt a strong sense of connection as I moved deeper into the pages of this book.

I love Lissa Regan's style of writing. It is sharp, It is affecting. The ending was a shocker, a true shocker. It left me wanting for more.

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC to review in exchange for my honest opinion. show less

This starts with the murder of Noah's mother. That investigation leads to decades old disappearances and suicides. While Noah is grieving, Josie is trying to solve a murder that leads to a higher body count. This investigation tests Noah and Josie's relationship, along with her relationship with Noah's siblings. Trying to learn of his mother's past, Josie discovers evidence of more crimes and coverups. There is one small section that leaves a storyline open. What happened? This is not surrounding the murder part of the story but involves Josie personally. I HOPE what may or may not have happened, didn't happen. That is all I am willing to say due to spoilers. As always, anxiously awaiting the next installment of Josie Quinn.

Diep onder de grond is het vijfde deel intussen al in de reeks van Josie Quinn. De boeken staan steeds garant voor enkele fijne uren leesplezier en ook bij dit boek was dat het geval. Het verhaal start met Josie en haar vriend Noah die een bezoek brengen aan Noah’s moeder. Ze treffen haar echter dood aan in de tuin en vinden in haar woning enkele ongebruikelijke voorwerpen. Deze lijken verband te houden met andere personen, maar de link is onduidelijk. Noah’s moeder hield er dus meerdere geheimen op na en de relatie van Josie en Noah komt onder immense druk te staan. Noah is in dit boek soms wel eens een bullebak en hoewel ik snap dat hij rouwt en verdriet heeft om de dood van zijn moeder, moet hij dat niet op Josie uitwerken. Zij show more probeert ook alleen maar te helpen en haar werk goed te doen. Het verhaal zit slim in elkaar en hoewel de linken soms moeilijk te volgen waren en er nogal wat doden te betreuren vallen, is dit zeker een goed deel in de Josie Quinn reeks. Ik kijk alvast uit naar een volgende deel! Wat ook zeker nog credits verdient, is de cover van dit boek. De omslag is echt prachtig! Voor Diep onder de grond geef ik graag 4 sterren.

https://elinevandm.wordpress.com/2023/12/29/diep-onder-de-grond-van-lisa-regan-4.... show less

Loved it.

If you've read the previous books in this series, picking this one up is a no-brainer.

Each book is fully self-contained, but Josie Quinn and her family and co-workers have ongoing character arcs worth following. So do start from the beginning if you haven't already.

Police procedural thrillers were never my genre, but this series has me converted. Very highly recommended.