Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Teaser Tuesday: Bones of Contention by Jeanne Matthews

"Did you have a guilty mind when you watched Dez Fisher die?"

"I thought I was doin' the world a service."
~~~Page 294


Title: Bones of Contention
ISBN: 9781590587300
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press/2010
Pages: 304

Set in the Australian outback, with a family as dysfunctional as they get, Bones of Contention manages to hold our interest. With the underlying tensions and a couple of unrelated murders thrown in, the reader is kept guessing.

Dinah Pelerin has lost her job and also her boyfriend when she gets a call from her uncle, Cleon Dodds, in a God forsaken place in Australia, to join him and his entire family. There he intends to rewrite his will and then commit suicide, as he suffers from cancer. He needs help from a rogue doctor, who will help him to kill himself. Dinah too needs to find out about her father, who had died in her childhood. He was supposedly a felon.

Dinah's half brother Lucien is Cleon's son and she is very close to him. A murder has already been committed in an island nearby and then another murder happens right in front of everyone's eyes. Dinah senses something has been hidden from her for too long. She starts to investigate in her amateur way and finds skeletons tumbling out of cupboards. Everyone in the family has something to hide. And then Dinah hits upon something very big, which jolts her. It is now on her as to what family secrets she can let out and which ones she has to hide.

Bones of Contention touches the aborigine myths, and their various rituals. That part was very interesting. Dinah is no detective yet she persists in finding out the motive and the murderer. Each member of the family is not really what they seem to be. It took me a while to get into the Australian lingua. Once I did I read it very fast. It moves forward with wit and humour. It is the first in the Dinah Pelerin Mystery series.

20 comments:

Brooke from The Bluestocking Guide said...

Wow, this sound interesting.

My teaser

Shelley Munro said...

Interesting teaser. The Australian setting sounds good too.

Here's My Teaser

Des @ NovelSuggestions.com said...

That sounds like an interesting mystery in a great setting. One more for me to check out I think!

My teaser is at: Novel Suggestions

Anne said...

Great teaser. It made me think of my abandoned Deja Dead book.

My teaser.

Novroz said...

Interesting teaser, short but powerful

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

Sounds great!

Here's mine:

Click name = URL

Unknown said...

Intriguing teaser! Leaves me wondering the reasoning behind his thoughts.

Belinda said...

Great teaser!! I'd read it just becase it's from Australia. Then again it could just make me incredibly homesick.

Here's my Tuesday Teaser

CMash said...

Great teaser...why did he die?
CMash

Kristin said...

Interesting teaser...might have to check this one out!

Thanks for stopping by!

jlshall said...

Sounds like a good read with an interesting setting. And I always like mysteries with amateur sleuths on the case. Great teaser!

fredamans said...

Maybe he was... who are we to judge.... great teaser!

http://fredasvoice.blogspot.com/2010/09/teaser.html

Aisle B said...

Ohhhh what a comeback... I thought I was doing the world a service. Would not want to get on his bad side at ALL! Great teaser and looks like we're both in for a fun ride with our books :)

E.J. Stevens said...

Great teaser! My teaser is here.

xx,
E.J
From the Shadows

Heather said...

What a great, snarky teaser. Sounds like an interesting mystery!

Jo-Jo said...

Well that is an interesting teaser!

Chrissie said...

Great teaser :)

Tasha said...

Sounds like an interesting read and a great teaser. My two teasers are here.

Lori said...

Both the teaser and the cover are compelling. I hope that you enjoy your book. Here's my Teaser for Tuesday.

Julie said...

This sounds like a very interesting book. I love the premise!

Julie @ Knitting and Sundries