BONES OF BETRAYAL

When forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton pulls a frozen body from a swimming pool in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, it sets him on a twisted path. Tom Stechschulte begins the story with a lively, joking tone that captures Brockton's good nature and his close relationship with his colleagues. Quickly, Stechschulte's tone shifts to gravity and fear when Brockton discovers his victim, a Manhattan Project scientist with secrets, and realizes that he has died from swallowing a radioactive pellet. Stechschulte makes Brockton fully dimensional with a variety of credible emotions, and his secondary characters help establish a sense of place. As the details surrounding present and past murders merge, Stechschulte expresses Brockton's determination to connect and solve them. S.W. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2009]